A movie theater for Moscow's homeless population had its inaugural screening over the weekend, attracting scores of the city's less fortunate, the Metro news daily reported Monday.
The first film to grace the newly erected screen in a tent near Yaroslavsky Station was the popular 1965 comedy “Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures,” directed by Leonid Gaidai, the report said.
Photographs of the event published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper on Monday showed men and women of all ages laughing boisterously as they watched the slapstick Soviet classic.
In addition to the film, visitors were treated to a warm meal with hot tea and fresh watermelon for dessert.
The tent — which will function as a movie theater for one evening each month — has served as a venue catering to the needs of local homeless people for upwards of a year now, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.
Volunteers from charitable organizations Druzya na Ulitse (“Friends on the Street”) and municipal service Sotsialny Patrul (“Social Watch”) — both of which serve those in Moscow without a place to live — reportedly plan to screen a different Soviet classic each month.
Meanwhile, charitable organization Miloserdiye (“Mercy”) plans to open a full-service hair salon to serve the city's homeless population.
The organization runs Angar Spaseniya (“Rescue Hanger”), a space on Nikoloyamskaya Ulitsa where homeless people can clean themselves up and receive free medical care, the Izvestia newspaper reported Monday.
Angar Spaseniya already provides some barbershop and hairstyling services, but the facilities are very basic. Several homeless people with the requisite skills volunteer their services as stylists, accommodating an average of 10 clients a day free of charge.
However, the space lacks specialized equipment, such as mirrors, haircutting scissors, material to sterilize grooming instruments and specialized chairs, Miloserdiye spokeswoman Anna Ovsiannikova was quoted by Izvestia as saying.
The organization plans to raise 80,000 rubles ($1,430) to modernize the makeshift salon.
Contact the author at d.litvinova@imedia.ru
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