I met Telluride Film Fest guest directors Kira Kovalenko (left) and Kantemir Balagov (right) here in Colorado and at the New York Film Festival in recent years. Last year, Kira had “Unclenching the Fists” on the fest circuit and a few years ago Kantemir was touring with “Beanpole.” Students of Sokoruv’s film school in their hometown of Nalchik (in the North Caucasus in Russia), Kira and Kantemir, recently fled their home country in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and with the help of Telluride festival director Julie Huntsinger found a new home in California. The duo chose six films for this year’s fest, a mix of work by Lee Chang-dong (“Oasis”), Kira Muratova (“Getting to Know the Big, Wide World”), Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders”), Aleksandr Sokurov (“Elegy of a Voyage”), Abbas Kiarostami (“Where Is the Friend’s Home”), and Jean Vigo (“L’Atalante”). This morning, Kira introduced the screening of Vigo’s 1934 classic — a rather transfixing, quite funny romance about newlyweds (and a lot of cats) aboard a French boat — alongside Kantemir and their trusty dog, Rocco. “It’s like an old friend” she said of the film, one you return to and reconnect with every so often for insight. As the lights started to dim, Kira and Kantemir took seats in the back and then Rocco let out a little bark. The audience chuckled as the lights went down and the movie began.