Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Mikhalkov, the 32nd Annual Moscow International Film Festival has come to an end. It was vibrant and colourful as always. There were many guests, but at the same time, it has calmed down somewhat.
Nikita Mikhalkov: Mr Putin, the festival is really gaining momentum. The main thing is that it is really about the films now. Can you believe that in nine days there were over 500 guests and 342 films? Some other interesting figures - 121,640 admissions, with 65,000 of these to the Russian programmes. In other words, this is a beautiful sign that Russians want to watch their own films. This is very important. Perhaps not all of the films are worth seeing, but that doesn't change the fact that they wanted to.
There are problems, but they're straightforward. By the way, I'm grateful to you for helping us out by attending in the early years, when the festival was almost on its last legs. Now, as you see, we don't have to bother you anymore. And now you can tell me that we don't have to send you tickets anymore...
Vladimir Putin: But you still need money.
Nikita Mikhalkov: We need money. But I must say that if we achieve what we've set out to do, the festival will start to pay for itself. What does that mean? The film market must work. The film market is a pillar of the festival. The film market will make sense when the country has 10,000 cinemas instead of 2,000. But in order for this to happen, there must electronic ticketing, which we've often talked about, and cinemas in small towns.
Seventy percent of the population has no access to cinemas. None whatsoever. And it is not profitable for investors to invest in a small town, because they'll break even quicker with a large multiplex.
As you know, there is a programme to build cinemas in small towns - the State Duma has supported this idea, and we're working on it now. So I hope that this will work out.
There is another problem, which I've already bothered you about, but there's no getting around it. The Moscow city authorities have promised us five times that they would start construction on the Moscow Film Festival Palace. This has become somewhat embarrassing, since it has been announced in public repeatedly that it's in the works ... I have simply stopped calling them. But we need the Palace very much.
Vladimir Putin: You and I discussed the fact that that there are federally-owned facilities, and you were sort of positive about this proposal.
Nikita Mikhalkov: Mr Putin, I'm ready. But in order to do this, we need to know that this is absolutely a sure thing, that this is where we'll build. But there are certain problems - we can't build in an inaccessible location that festival guests will not be able reach and watch films every day. The Palace must be in a place with a sufficiently convenient access road. We discussed this at length with our mayor, and locations were even proposed, but in the end there was no interest.
Vladimir Putin: It's a complex issue, truly complex. And it's not easy for the Moscow city authorities, since there are so many requests, but it's also clear that there's only one festival.
Nikita Mikhalkov: And then the building will be used year-round.
Vladimir Putin: Let's discuss this again; we can speak with the Moscow city authorities together. Let's return to this issue. And what's happening with electronic ticketing? After all, this is a solution that could create an economic basis for development.
Nikita Mikhalkov: Mr Putin, the expression "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" must come up a lot in your work. We all want this, but there is something of a fight over what kind of programme there will be and who will implement - and without political consensus on how to do it , there will be no electronic ticketing. It is impossible to track film attendance without electronic ticketing.