Director Ilya Malakhova shot a gentle film “Hello, Mom”

Before entering VGIK in the workshop of Marlen Khutsiev, Ilya Malakhova studied at the Leningrad Mining Institute. Now she herself teaches at one of the Moscow film schools. Ilya shot her first short film “Dad …” two years ago, although she graduated from VGIK in the 90s. Now her feature-length acting debut, Hello Mom, has taken place. Ilya, although a debutante, is an experienced cinematographer. She worked as an editor and screenwriter on the projects of her husband, director and producer Bakur Bakuradze, Brother Deyan and The Hunter, which premiered at the festivals in Cannes and Locarno. Together they were the screenwriters of “The Challenge” by Klim Shipenko, filmed in space.

Ilya and I talked after the premiere in Vyborg.

– You studied with Marlen Khutsiev, and you had a very interesting course.

– Yes, Artem Mikhalkov, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Levan Koguashvili, Bakur Bakuradze studied at our course. There were some interesting guys there. We had fun.

– I don’t know if I will surprise you or not, but Marlen Martynovich, with whom I had a chance to communicate, said that you were one of the best on the course.

– I have a complex and excellent relationship with Marlen Martynovich. I accidentally passed VGIK, went in, and there was a set. They told me: “Read the poem.” And I knew the only thing by heart – “Pestel, Poet and Anna” by David Samoilov. “There Anna sang from the very morning / And she sewed or embroidered something. / And the song, flying to the courtyard, / Involuntarily stirred his heart.” When I read it, I felt a strange look on myself, and then I found out that I passed. It turned out that this was Marlen Martynovich’s favorite poem. But it was also a favorite of my amazing teacher of Russian language and literature, Lyudmila Davydovna. It was she who made me memorize it, disassemble it. Lyudmila Davydovna loved me. She gave me reels of recordings by Galich, whom I did not know before, and a completely different world opened up to me. I am a St. Petersburg lady, I love everything abnormal. Wake me up at night, read Samoilov. I read it at VGIK and became a student of Khutsiev. It was very strange.

– Knowing Marlen Martynovich, who himself recited many poems by heart, I am not at all surprised. Why haven’t you filmed for so long? Raised children, helped her husband?

– Of course, I worked with Bakur and raised children, and my children are complex, interesting. I had things to do. I couldn’t just pick up and start making movies. Didn’t want to do it like that, by the way. And to devote himself to the cinema as much as it was now, it did not work. This moment was to be expected. I am terribly embarrassed in front of Marlen Martynovich.

– For not having time to show him the film?

“I don’t think he was expecting him, but he would have been glad to have him.”

– Despite the fact that you were constantly involved in film production, was there any fear associated with your late debut?

– I’ll try to explain. When a child is born and after that you die for three days, they say to you: “Do you know that your child does not want to die? Apparently you don’t want to die either?” At some point, all fears become secondary. My sense of motherhood and attitude to creativity have changed a lot. It’s not about fear at all. It’s about the thrill. There is definitely no fear.

– It turns out that you also had a short film.

I took it off two years ago. And do you know why? To submit a full-length project to the Ministry of Culture, a short film was needed. And in two days we filmed with Masha Falileeva (cameraman “Hi, Mom” ​​together with Denis Klebleev. – S.Kh.) my family history. Bakur was filming with us, and all my children – Anya, Leri, Dusya. This is a very soulful, homely, picture taken in the country.

– From it your feature film was born?

“These are completely different stories. When you have a good handheld camera and shoot yourself, it’s like a documentary, but it’s not. It’s also an attempt to do something more, but it’s not “Hi, Mom”, not forty people on the site, where you are in charge of a lot of things. These are not actors in the frame, but just people.

– Whether you like it or not, but Khutsiev’s handwriting is felt in your picture, especially in the sounds that fill it.

“All I dream about is absolutely incredible, in spite of all, the existing poetry in the frame, which I so madly admire in Marlene. This movie should rock. The house where my heroines live stands on the border of the worlds. On the one hand – a kindergarten, on the other – trains going somewhere.

– You have the inscription “Malaya Okhta”. Is this district and St. Petersburg important to you?

– Certainly. I was born in Petersburg. For me, the city is Malaya Okhta, trains and tunnels. I know for sure that I would never shoot another city, because it is not real for me, but this one is real and alive. I come here and I can’t leave. I feel good there morning and evening, night and day. There are such incredible views from the window, which I would not exchange for anything. On the one hand, Brueghel, and on the other, Wenders. This is my spot. I won’t give it to anyone.

– So on the screen is your yard with five-story buildings?

Yes, this is my yard. And I’ll show it to you, but I won’t give it back. I understand that five-story buildings will most likely be demolished, and this is an incredible place from an emotional point of view, a magical sound field. You can’t even imagine how beautiful wake-up calls sound from the Ladoga railway station at 4 o’clock in the morning, how trains pass, how trams fly. You may be blind, but you can see it all through sound. How seagulls fly to the garbage heap and quarrel with crows. I know them. You greet the cashier at the store. She sees you every day. And you can’t help but ask, “How are you? How are your children?” It’s a wonderful world. I love him so much. Malaya Okhta for me is not just my happy childhood, but it really was very happy. I was myself there. My parents didn’t really care about me. They worked. Dad is a surgeon, mom is a teacher. My grandfather always asked: “What are we going to think of?” And my grandmother grumbled all the time, she was dissatisfied with everything. A beautiful Petersburg old woman.

– How did you meet producer Natalya Drozd? She’s been doing so well lately. Suffice it to name “One Little Night Secret” by Natalia Meshchaninova, the world premiere of which took place at the Rotterdam Film Festival, the Finnish-Russian “Coupe No. 6”, which received the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival …

“Natasha and I have known each other for a long time. She read my script, said it was interesting but raw. And I definitely need to work with someone, pump the script. It doesn’t matter if it’s a screenwriter or not, just a living person. We began to work with Natasha. It was wonderful. Natasha asked subtle questions, deepened the script, opened it for herself. And I opened it through her. We have pumped it so much that it has become our thing that cannot be done. She is mature. I am very grateful to Natasha for her honesty and sincerity. As a producer, she was super cool and looked at everything in a human, emotional way. This is a big gift for me.

– When you wrote the script, did you assume specific actors?

– I did not assume Daria Savelyeva, but I saw the internal component of energy and light. I was looking for Kira for a very long time, but I definitely and immediately found Aglaya Tarasova for the role of Vera. When she came to audition, for me she turned out to be the heroine that was needed. Aglaya is very honest, sincere and talented, and most importantly, she has a big heart, it is like the sea. I don’t know where else I would have found such a natural super-vital actress. Aglaya asked me: “Are you Kira or Vera? It looks like you are Vera. Maybe yes. I say what I think. I have a lot of kids.

– A bunch is three?

— Three. There are many more students, and they are like children to me. I address them like this: “Baby, baby”, sometimes: “Mom, mom.” They ask why I call them “mom”. Yes, because Georgians usually address children this way.

– You’re not Georgian, are you?

– Me not. My husband is Georgian.

– The Georgian world is present in your picture, in its intonations, some of the heroes are men.

– When you live with a Georgian for a long time, you start to speak a little with a Georgian accent. My father is a Tatar, my mother is Russian, my grandmother on my mother’s side is just a real Finnish. I don’t have Georgian blood.

– It turns out that the main character had to be picked up by Aglaya? They are so different, from two separate worlds.

– Of course, they are different. They are two sisters. I will show you a photograph of my sister, and you will understand what different worlds are. She is blue-eyed, fair-haired, not at all like me, but this is my sister, the closest person. She is 15 years younger. The age difference is like that of my daughters – Anya and Dusi.

Have your parents seen your film?

– Mom saw some kind of working version. She loves Me. What difference does it make what I say. She will still understand and accept.

– Is it important to you that your children starred in the film?

I didn’t want them to participate. It so happened that Bakura was shooting in parallel in Georgia, and there was simply no one to leave the children with. We were looking for actors, and casting director Vladimir Golov said: “Dusya is a character in your film. Take it off and don’t worry.” My son Lerik said: “Mom, I won’t be an autist, I’ll pretend to be an autist.” And he learned to portray him. For me, it is super valuable when an autistic boy says: “I will not be like that, I will act.”

– How old are your children?

All of mine are big. Anya – 26, Lerka – 25, Duce – 11.

— Bakur did not interfere in your work, did not try to help you?

I didn’t give him that opportunity. Yes, he didn’t need it. Bakura has his own project – very cool. He shot in Tbilisi when it was snowing for half of the shoot, which is rare. There has never been such a snowfall in Georgia. Bakur is busy with his own, and I have my cinema, female.

“But there’s no getting away from each other at home. Are you still talking about something?

– Bakur now lives in the country, editing there. I live in Moscow with my children and edit here. I’ve got it all worked out. I like the picture. It seems that you managed to show your feminine view of the world. I like that people are interested.

– Now that you have made an independent film, will your future life be different?

– How else? My children will not stop being my children, and my students will not stop being my students. I’ll probably shoot more. Filming is like immersion, but I don’t think it will fundamentally change me. I have always been ready for them. I’m always ready for anything. When you have a hard time giving birth to a child, and then even harder than the second, and then the third, then you are ready for anything – for a hurricane, a blizzard, the end of the world.

– At the same time, the picture was shot thin and tender.

“I really love my heroines and beautiful men too. I love everyone.

– The men you have turned out to be very interesting.

“They are very dear to me and they are all like children. There was a situation where I could not decide how to make the ending. I went to a psychologist, gave her a script. She read it. I asked if I could do it like this at the end, and I started talking about my characters. The psychologist said: “You scare me. You talk about them as if they were alive.” They are, of course, alive to me. It’s great when an actress comes in who can do a lot, and she passes everything through herself, and then sets a cool context. I look and rejoice at such a miracle. Shooting movies is awesome.

Kira asks her lover a question: “What is wrong with me?” What’s wrong with her? It seems to me that everything is in order.

“What’s wrong with her is that she doesn’t trust herself. Everything is the same with her, and her question is more of a slap in the face, a provocation. I sincerely love you. What are you in my life? What am I in yours? Why didn’t I please you? This is a sudden but very serious structural position.