Alexander Galibin makes films for children: “I want to understand the little man”

Actor and director Alexander Galibin in recent years has been making films exclusively for children – “Golden Fish”, “Sister”, “Marusya Foreva!”, “My Terrible Sister”, “The Adventures of Little Baja”. For them, he was awarded the Presidential Prize in the field of literature and art for works for children and youth. Now he is working on a new film “Russula” based on the film story of Xenia Dragunskaya.

It all started more than ten years ago with the film “Goldfish”, released in 2015. It is dedicated to the director’s father, who went through the blockade, lost loved ones, ended up in an orphanage.

How can you explain your interest in children’s films?

– At first I had a desire to pay tribute to the generation of my parents-siege survivors. These are special people, amazing in their ability to appreciate life, friends, family, time, the simplest things. This, unfortunately, is not passed on to the younger generation. I wanted to talk about them. The scenario “Goldfish” responded to my inner aspirations. I ran with him for ten years for different companies, until the Debut studio hired him, for which I am very grateful. I dedicated the “Golden Fish” to my dad, who by that time had already died. It seemed to me that not everything was managed to be said, and when an application for Mustai Karim’s story “The Joy of Our Home” came across, everything quickly began to spin. We became friends with the writer’s relatives, the painting “Sister” was born.

– She became your hit and won many awards.

– Yes, she has Russian awards and prizes of European festivals, which, probably, no one else has. I understood one simple thing. We stopped having a dialogue with children from the screen, we began to entertain more often. My great predecessors – Rolan Bykov, Dinara Asanova, Ilya Fraz, Sergei Solovyov, Alexander Mitta, Vladimir Grammatikov – were able to talk to a young audience from the screen. I have nothing against entertaining. Cinema is entertainment too. But “Harry Potter” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” with their amazing computer graphics are not about us. I would like to build relationships with children and teenagers, so I do children’s films. Literally, one after another, my paintings “Marusya Foreva!” came out! and “My Terrible Sister”, then “The Adventures of Little Baja”, which we filmed in Dagestan. The problem is that the system for renting children’s pictures is broken. The Americanization that has taken place has played an evil trick on all of us. Now we need to restore everything.

– It is known that children are a difficult contingent, so many of your colleagues do not want to work with them. And you found a way to them.

“Trust is important here. Children go through a huge number of tests, conversations. This is painstaking work – to talk a child, to understand where he is, and where he is introduced, what he was taught. Recently, a huge number of circles and film schools have arisen that spoil children. A child cannot be taught the way adults are taught. Working with children is a completely different science. We talk to them for a long time. I’m trying to understand the little man. It’s the same personality. A lot is inherent in a child, and an adult needs to gradually open it, including on the screen. All this requires much more money than working with adult actors. Children don’t lie. They don’t know how to do it. You need to be honest, open with them, speak in a language they understand. Then everything will work out.

– You filmed a young Martha Kessler, who became interested in Hollywood. But the pandemic struck, destroying many plans.

– Marta after “Sister” starred in my film “My Terrible Sister” along with Sonya Petrova, who played the main role in “Marus Foreva”. They did everything perfectly, and the picture brilliantly passed and earned 80 million at the box office. In the near future we will start filming its second part. Martha is in America, filming there very intensively. Her schedule is scheduled for several years. Her whole family went there. Martha is a very talented person. She would have done well here, too.

You are working on a children’s painting again. This is a teacher”?

— I have several applications that I’m working on, including “Teacher” about a music teacher. Now we are closely working on a film based on the film story “Russula” by Xenia Dragunskaya. A few months before her death, she gave it to me with the words: “Sasha, you have to take it off. This is your stuff.” I read and fell in love. In parallel with the work on The Adventures of Little Baja, we began to work on the script. Ksyusha died, then her husband Zhenya left, and we were left alone with this material. In August we will start filming Russula. While we are looking for nature, it will probably be Karelia.

– No time for acting?

– I play in the “School of the modern play.” I don’t do a lot of films. Firstly, there is no interesting material, and secondly, I got carried away working with children. I’m very interested. So many topics related to children. They are just on the road. The question is how to process them literary. Children are our national idea. I am with them. I would like to dedicate the award to my parents. Without them, nothing would have happened. Mom is 93 years old. She lives in Petersburg. My parents taught me to respect the work of others and to work on my own. I always follow this. It is important to move on, not to sit still, to work, then everything will come.