The renowned film-director,  versatile actor and a prominent public figure Nikita Mikhalkov visited Penza and met with students and staff of Penza State University.

The winner of numerous prestigious film awards, internationally acclaimed master of both popular and auteur cinema, Nikita Mikhalkov paid a visit to Penza to take part in several cultural events and as an honoured guest in the opening ceremony of a high-relief monument to the star of silent cinema Ivan Mosjoukine.

After laying the flowers to the university war memorial ‘They Fought for the Motherland’, Nikita Mikhalkov held a long conversation with students and professors. The conversation spanned a wide variety of subjects –  from youth topics, social media, studying abroad, creativity to social life, religion,  moral values, and education.

‘I m deeply thankful to our teachers who have this desire in their blood. It is a genuine desire to educate, to develop, to enlighten. My son was lucky to have such a teacher. And I think this is great that such people are still among us. It is important that apart from the desire to earn, people should retain human and moral qualities.  In education we have to give priority to true understanding and knowledge of history, self-awareness and understanding of one’s place in the life of family and close people, role of a person in the history of the nation’, said Nikita Mikhalkov during the discussion on education.

The conversation was also centred on films, attitude to modern day cinema, to profession as a calling, to fame and awards. Nikita Mikhalkov answered the numerous questions and disclosed some details of the forthcoming Moscow Film Festival, due to be conducted in the end of June.

At the end of the meeting the university rector Aleksandr Gulyakov officially awarded the guest with the title Honorary Professor of Penza State University. Nikita Mikhalkov reacted with a joke, saying ‘Now I will have to visit you quite regularly.’ Famous film-maker thanked for the warm welcome and happily posed for shots with students and signed autographs.