MAKS Air show
For a lot of folks, one of the great traditional events of the summer in Moscow is the MAKS (International Aviation and Space Show) held at the Zhukovsky Airport, located 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) of bumper-to-bumper traffic southeast of Moscow. It opened on Tuesday, but the weekday hours are mostly for folks who want to buy a dozen MIGs or test-fly a helicopter. If you don’t fall in that category, you’ll want to go on the weekend with your kids and a great deal of patience for crowds. But when you get there, you can see a spectacular air show. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday. Tickets are about 1000 rubles on day of attendance, with another hefty fee for parking. Buy tickets ahead of time here. For more information, see their site here.
NOTE: Admittance only to visitors with valid QR codes.
Women Filmmakers
Until July 27, the Art Theater is hosting a film festival called the New Femininity, which is not, thankfully, a series of films about feminine women, but rather a series of some of the best films directed by women all over the world in the last two years.
All the films will be shown in their original language with Russian subtitles. On Friday at 8:15 p.m. you can see an Egyptian film called Souad about a young university student who leads a double life of conservative obedience at home while having a wild online persona (Arabic). Later that evening at 10 p.m. you can see the French film “Gold For Dogs” about an 18-year-old woman in the south of France who follows her summer fling back to Paris and takes shelter in a convent with unexpected consequences. On Saturday at 5 p.m. there is a showing of Larisa Shepitko’s 1966 film “Wings” (in Russian) about a former fighter pilot and staunch Stalinist who struggles to fit into civilian life as a schoolmistress. That evening at 7:15 is “Listen,” a Portuguese film about a family living outside London who struggle to hold on to their children when social services get involved to “help” them.
On Sunday starting at 5 p.m. is a three-hour version of a 14-hour “road trip” called “Women Make Film” all about the women filmmakers all over the world whose contributions to world cinema have been virtually ignored. It was shot and edited by Marc Cousins and narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Debra Winger Adjoa Andoh, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton, and Sharmila Tagore.
For the rest of the films and ticket sales, see the Art Theater site here.
Magic Museum
If your kids dream of flying on a broomstick like Harry Potter or sawing their sibling in half, run, don’t walk to the Museum of Illusion and Magic Tricks at Izmailovo Park. Every hour on the hour there is a tour with a magician who demonstrates about two dozen tricks and optical illusions and lets your children take part and learn how to do them. It’s a friendly interactive place where everyone is encouraged to touch and try everything. At 450 rubles per person (or a cheaper family rate), it’s a bargain (although you might make an expensive stop at the souvenir stand). It’s right by the entrance to the Izmailovo market. Afterwards, stop for a bit of shopping and an outdoor lunch, and then head across the bridge to the historical part of the park for some sightseeing. For more information, see the museum site.
Georgia on my mind
Start the weekend off the right way, with a concert of Mgzavrebi at 16 Tons Friday at 8 p.m.. You don’t have to be able to spell or pronounce the name of this Georgian group to love their music, which can’t really be categorized. It’s traditional Georgian folk music played on a variety of familiar and unfamiliar instruments and mixed with rock/pop/jazz. Tickets are 3500 rubles. For more information and ticket sales, see the 16 Tons site.
Movie Night
The big foreign language premiere this weekend is “Old,” a new film by the master of the surprise ending, M. Night Shyamalan. A group of people go to a beach on a tropical island and slowly realize that they are aging years by the hour. It’s playing at several cinemas around town; see this site for times and places and check for original language. If you are an action movie fan, you might like “Snake Eyes: GI Joe” which purports to be the “origin story” of this classic action character. See this site for times and places; be sure to double check for original language. At Pioner, your kids can watch “Space Jam 2” in English or an exciting Japanese animated film called “Spirited Away,” or you can see “Black Widow,” the charming Italian “Kidz” or the very appealing French movie “My Donkey, My Lover and I” (trailer below with English subtitles).
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