Actress Drukarova went the way of a sailor and a fisherman for her debut film

Russian-French actress Dinara Drukarova, familiar to us from the films “About Freaks and People” by Alexei Balabanov, “Gainsbourg. Hooligan’s Love” by Joanna Sfara, “Love” by Michael Haneke, where Jean-Louis Trintignant became her partner, “My Golden Years” by Arnaud Desplechin, “Compartment Number Six” by Juho Kuosmanen, became a director. The world premiere of her film “Lily and the Sea” took place in the program “New Directors” at the International Film Festival in San Sebastian, Spain, and then Dinara presented it in her native St. Petersburg at the “Message to Man” festival.

“I was born, raised, studied in Leningrad and am glad to be back in the city of my childhood,” says Dinara. — I was 15 years old when I first appeared at the Message to Man festival as a volunteer. As a student, I went to screenings that became a window into the world of cinema for me. Thanks to films, communication with directors, my taste for cinema was formed. And then I went to live in France.”

Dinara has no acting education. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities of the Electrotechnical Institute, became a public relations specialist, although the path to the cinema seemed to be predetermined. As a child, she starred in the film “It was by the sea” by Ayan Shakhmaliyeva, later in “Freeze-die-resurrect!” Vitaly Kanevsky, in her student years she worked with Balabanov in the film “About freaks and people.” Then there were shootings in France, where she met her future husband Jean-Michel. Many of our filmmakers know him, because the production company Rezo Films, headed by him, promoted Russian cinema in Europe, released the films “Island” and “Tsar” by Pavel Lungin.

Four years ago, Drukarova made a short film “My branch is thin” about the loss of a loved one, where she said goodbye to her Tatar mother according to the Muslim rite. Back in 2018, Dinara told MK that she was preparing for the film adaptation of the book Lily and the Sea, she dreams of a personal artistic expression and does not consider cinema as a business, but only as an art.

For many years, Dinara lives on a barge called “Songs of the World” near the Champs Elysees in the center of Paris. She is no stranger to light rocking. But in Iceland, where her first film Lily and the Sea was filmed, things turned out to be much more complicated. “In order to tell the truth about everything, I went to sea with Canadian, Belgian, French fishermen, and every time it was a test. I had to deal with seasickness,” recalls Dinara. – With Belgian fishermen, I got into a storm that reached eight points. I felt bad. I couldn’t get up and said to myself: “Why haven’t I died yet?” In Iceland, we conducted a casting of ships. The ship you see in the movie was the only one where I didn’t get seasick.”

“Lily and the Sea” was filmed by the Finnish cameraman Timo Salminen, who worked with Aki Kaurismäki on the films “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky, “The Girl from the Match Factory”, “Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses”, “A Man Without a Past”, “Havre”. Together with him, Dinara also filmed the short film “My branch is thin.” On the screen is a timeless landscape, as if we are nowhere and everywhere. The film was filmed in a small Icelandic village, and the beauties that opened up to the eye had to be avoided. The main thing was the feeling that the Earth ends there.

Lily runs to the ends of the earth from her past, getting a job on a fishing boat where only men work. Performs the dirtiest, most unfeminine work. She needs to gut the fish, which is rushing around the deck in a death cramp, flooding it with blood. Lily has a chance to start a calm and possibly happy life. She meets a handsome and strong man, but she prefers freedom and the sea.

“Katherine Poulain’s book excited me a lot, gave me strength and even changed my life,” says Dinara. “A man goes to the end of the world, where it doesn’t matter who he is. He will test his strengths and weaknesses. After reading the script, Katherine said, “I wrote my book. We met and talked. I trust you, do your film.” This trust was very important to me. Katherine describes the 80s, Alaska in her book, and when she saw the finished film, she was shocked. Much did not correspond to what she wrote. It was her life, and I took it and made something different out of it. But Katherine realized that this was not a documentary story. She left home at 16, picked grapes, went to Canada, worked as a waitress in Hong Kong, went to Alaska until the immigration authorities brought her back to France. She became a shepherd, tending her flock in the mountains. She was interviewed, and Katherine told the journalist that she also wrote, allowed her to read her diaries. The journalist showed them to the editor. The diaries have been published. Katherine’s novel came out when she was 55 years old. Then she wrote a second book, now she is working on a third and harvesting grapes again. In the book, like in the movie, nothing is said about Lily’s past. And it became an opportunity to project her fate onto his own. Every person has a desire at some point to give up everything and go to the ends of the world.

France, Russia, Belgium and Iceland participated in the production of the film. It is filmed in English and French. Lily moves freely from one to the other. The team on the ship is international, and the cast is appropriate. The captain was played by the sought-after Belgian actor Sam Lauwijk, who came a few years ago to the “Message to Man” with the Italian film “Miracles” by Alice Rohrwacher. In the role of a fisherman with whom Lily could connect her life, a very bright Icelandic actor Bjodn Hlinur Haraldsson, known for The Witcher and nominated by Iceland for the Oscar for Lamb, starred.

“It was important for me that all the actors had an accent,” says Dinara. – Each of them has experience in cinema, a rich biography and something related to the sea. Someone was in jail. They are all more than actors. Everyone is a strong individual. Sam Lauwijk is not only an actor, but also a dancer, he flies the plane. The female captain was played by Didda Younsdottir, an actress, poet, and musician. Her song is heard at the end of the film.

Initially, Dinara Drukarova was not going to play Lily, but the material turned out to be so vital that everything was decided by itself. There was another significant point. The crew consisted of seven people, and the film crew could not be more. And this is minuscule. We need a director, cameraman, actors, sound engineer, assistant director. The restriction became decisive in order to play herself. Lily is like a sparrow, a small, fragile woman who conquers the elements, male pressure, her own fears and impotence. Dinara seems exactly like that. Now, having shot a short film and a full-length picture, she is starting a documentary film-portrait of the writer Catherine Poulain. On this point. Dinara does not intend to continue her directing career. He says that he simply can’t stand it, because he acts in films, takes care of children, and there are two of them – son Nail Pierre Anatole and daughter Dania Ludmila Colette. There are such unpredictable actresses in the world.