Films reflecting our strange and frightening reality were shown at the festival of contemporary and contemporary cinema in Tobolsk. Cinema is a long production process, and filmmakers do not have time to comprehend what is happening. And is it necessary? They haven’t figured out the pandemic yet, how the times came with the so-called abolition of Russian culture.
The festival in Tobolsk was called “Alafeyskaya Gora”, which means “royal”. It was from here that the historical capital of Siberia began, where its only stone Kremlin is located. The Marble House by Boris Grigoriev was filmed here in the early 1970s, War by Alexei Balabanov in the 2000s, and a few more films. Local residents most often remember the recent “Tobol” by Igor Zaitsev, the scenery of which has become a landmark of the city. About 300 citizens took part in the filming and now they remember how the snow melted and they had to buy it.
“You can come with one film and show it only,” said the audience after watching “Swan Lake” by Anton Bilzho, a former journalist who debuted with the film “Dream Fish”. His new film was presented by St. Petersburg actor Alexander Cherednik, who starred in Sokurov’s “Quiet Pages” and “Save and Save”, known for the series “Method”, “Gangster Petersburg”, “Foundry”. He himself in Tobolsk for the first time saw the “Swan Lake”. “My friend was invited to audition, but he called and said he gave my phone number. I asked what role. It turned out that the choreographer. I doubted: he was dancing, but I was not. A friend reassured: “This is a choreographer, but drunk.” I went to the audition, confidently entered and said that my role and no one would play it better, told me about my life.
The action takes place in a small provincial town today. The governor, whose role was played by Igor Yatsko, who managed to do it on the verge of absurdity, but not fall into madness, is preparing for the next election. He lives like a landowner, stands up for the preservation of cultural values, believes in God. The servants in his house are dressed in 19th-century costumes. And the owner himself is filmed in a propaganda video, where, like Leo Tolstoy, he walks in a belted shirt through the eared rye. He instructs his wife, a former ballerina, to stage a ballet as part of the election campaign. Since there are no professional dancers in the city, people of different ages and builds who came according to the announcement take part in the performance. The quivering governor, as played by Olga Tsirsen, will stage something avant-garde in a dilapidated theater, will involve her drunken teacher, who is free as the wind, to work. The governor will not be ready for the elements of the people and such a “Swan Lake”. All this is very funny, ominous and absolutely surreal, sometimes too much. But there won’t be another Swan.
The debut “White Whale” was shot by a graduate of the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors, Russian-Israeli director Tatyana Fedorovskaya, who received the British BAFTA award for her short film “Mom’s Hairpins”. The main roles were played by Lithuanian actors Dainius Gevenonis and Rasa Samuolitė. At first, their very presence in the Russian world looks strange, and only later will a non-obvious explanation follow. Most likely, the plot was tailored to the specific performers with whom they wanted to work. A successful lawyer is trying to save a young Chechen from prison, through whose fault a man died, defending the rights of a same-sex couple. He is an exemplary father and husband, raising adopted children. Soon it turns out that they have a rare genetic disease and in a couple of years they will turn into “plants”. And now they instantly become “strangers”. They must be urgently returned to the orphanage, but usually the submissive wife does not agree with this. A handsome lawyer on the verge of a nervous breakdown bursts into the church, trying to talk to God. The hysteria lasts unreasonably long and turns into a farce, which the filmmakers hardly intended. “It is our life. Ours and not ours,” a remark characterizing both films will sound.
About how to make reality convincing, we talked with the guest of the festival, perhaps the most sought-after director Alexander Kott. No one works like him, releasing two films in parallel – “Chuk and Gek” by Gaidar and “Seventh Symphony” about besieged Leningrad. At the same time, he is visited by thoughts of leaving directing.
— I made many historical films where it was necessary to recreate the past era. Sometimes this is easier to do than renting a modern provincial town. Today is not clear. It is not genetically linked. When it becomes history, it will be easier. What is a murdered provincial town? While shooting Offside, we found an emerald house in Tula and were already looking for the rest for it. Tobolsk is white on white, the snow-white Kremlin against the backdrop of snow. There is no black here. I preach visual cinema. I have an occupational illness – I read literature and start to invent something that is not there, I scan the space, wherever I am. We go home from the subway and swallow the road. And it is important to consider it at least once, remember the people, the door that you opened. The director must be able to see. I love complex, talking faces. The man is silent, but you understand what he is thinking. Sometimes he seems to be invisible, like Lesha Serebryakov, but on the screen he begins to breathe. Cinema is a wild lie. When the famous actor was told that he had a long, thoughtful look, he explained that he was simply counting to forty-five.
Alexander Kott has an idea for a film about a journalist. “The word can kill physically,” he says. – I am writing a script about a journalist who has become an invisible man. He signs with other people’s names, and they stop noticing him. He doesn’t have a name. The director makes a movie with his attitude and position. Sokurov and German do what they want. Nobody orders them. And a journalist covers events without a position.” This is the view of our profession, and this is another inexplicable reality.
Newspaper headline:
Swan Lake canceled