Brazilian-Armenian filmmaker, President of an international film festival in San-Paolo Leon Cakoff (Leon Shatarevian) said that he is delighted with the organization level of Golden Apricot festival.

“Despite its small scale, it brought together such filmmakers as Theodoros Angelopoulos, Atom Egoyan, etc,” Cakoff told a press conference on the sidelines of Golden Apricot festival in Yerevan on July 17.

The filmmaker promised to arrive in Armenia every year to be beneficial to the festival. “I will be recommending Brazilian films to the festival organizers. And, possibly, I will select Armenian films for my festival,” noted Leon Cakoff.

He added that he is eager to include Armenian films (starting from silent ones) in the program of San-Paolo festival. He even made an attempt of retrospective screening of Armenian films in 1988, but failed in doing so, as “the Soviet Union was not interested in promotion of national films of any republic.”

Commenting on San-Paolo festival, Kakov said that he applied to San-Paolo Gallery with an offer to organize films screening in 1974. “In five years, I suggested its management to organize a festival and they agreed gladly,” said Leon Cakoff.