How the writer Roman Mikhailov shoots an independent and the poorest movie

What Roman did in science – homological and homotopic algebra, theories of group rings and categories – is a dark forest for his colleagues in theater and cinema. In 2022, he announced the end of his scientific activity. “Five years have passed since I didn’t really do mathematics. Everything that needed to be done was done. Further, my existence in the scientific community would turn into a shareholder, managing the loot, seizing power, and I am not interested in the struggle for resources and power at all – this is how Mikhailov now explains his incomprehensible choice to many.

He has been involved in theater for thirty years. His “The Tale of the Last Angel”, staged by Andrei Moguchiy at the Theater of Nations, was awarded the Golden Mask in 2021. In RAMT there is a play “Dreams of my father” based on his stories about the 90s, staged by Yegor Peregudov. Roman himself put his text “None of this will happen” in the BDT. “First of all, I am a theater director, I started doing theater in the 90s. Nine theaters across the country have staged my texts,” he says of his theatrical activities.

And in 2022, his film debut “A Tale for the Old” was released, created in tandem with actor Fyodor Lavrov (“Taurus” and “Father and Son” by Sokurov, “A Short Course in a Happy Life by Gai Germanika”, “Vertinsky” by Smirnova, “Thaw” by Valery Todorovsky ). According to directors, they shoot the poorest movie. Mikhailov had no skills, he learned everything on the set. His entire team worked for free. “We are one gang,” Mikhailov and Lavrov say. It is big, it has a variety of people who are passionate about the idea, and this is their strength.

A Fairy Tale for the Old won the Grand Prix at the Spirit of Fire International Debut Festival a year ago. Roman Mikhailov became not only a screenwriter and director, but he played one of the main roles in his film, and did it well. “I used to be a little dismissive of cinema, but now we have already made three feature films, and I like what we are getting. It is a very peculiar language,” says Roman. After the release of “Tales for the Old” he was constantly asked about the criminal past. This seemed natural to many: since the underworld is shown convincingly and vividly on the screen, it means that there is a certain experience. But then the questioners did not know that his second film “Snow, Sister and Wolverine”, made by himself, would become a truly personal film. It is based on the personal experience of Roman Mikhailov, tells about what a sect is.

About his religious experience, Roman speaks sincerely and honestly: “I was born in Orthodoxy. I have a strange childhood and youth. At the age of 12, he began to travel around the communities. Sectarians are people of true search. They do not stop there, every day they read the Bible, looking for their own meanings. Where I just was not from 12 to 24 years old. It was a pure and sincere search. At 24, I was living in India, where something miraculous happened to me. It was not so easy with such a background to enter the Russian Orthodox faith. I prayed children’s prayers wherever I lived, and then returned to Russia. It amazes me how one can be persecuted for one’s faith, to initiate criminal cases for the fact that a person understands the Bible and the Gospel in his own way. It does no harm to anyone, but people are enrolled in extremist organizations. I can only pray for them and for the state to come to its senses.”

The action in the film “Snow, Sister and Wolverine” takes place in a small town. The hero of Fyodor Lavrov is a law enforcement officer. His Nikolai fights against the illegal distribution of drugs. One fine day for him, he accidentally dials someone else’s phone number, hears an unfamiliar female voice in the receiver, which fascinates him. A casual interlocutor Elena (she was played by Ekaterina Starateleva, apparently, not an actress who received a blessing for the role from her confessor) is a preacher of the new church. The heroes begin to communicate, talk about the innermost, not realizing who is who. Nikolai is transferred to the department of combating extremism, where he will have to deal with the local sect, the very one where Elena preaches. But he doesn’t know about it. In essence, Nikolai doesn’t care – to fight drugs or sects. At the same time, he uses drugs himself. And with religion, he has an outlandish relationship. “There is a drop of faith in him,” Fedor Lavrov believes, “but he is close in his existence to an animal. Some kind of pagan, in my opinion, a man of the earth, a lost sheep. But he gets the opportunity to change something in his destiny.

Here the director also learned a lot from his own experience. “The cops don’t understand what kind of sectarians they are,” says Roman Mikhailov. – I was stopped today in the subway for some reason. And I already had such an experience in the 90s, when two cops came up, took me into the courtyard, robbed me, took all my money. I told them: “And on the subway?”. One of them handed me a ten. It was a gesture of goodwill. 25 years later, I made a film about a visionary cop who travels through the layers of memory, thinks he is a wolverine. He comes at dawn. The cultists are afraid of him. This movie is not about a bad cop. The circumstances are such that he is a little out of touch with life. People live in some layers and think that life is these layers. And the world is much wider and deeper. You live and think that you are well versed in something, in some aspect of culture, for example, in art-house cinema – like I knew. And the layers shift a little, and it becomes clear that you have not known anything. We must accept the cops as brothers and sisters. They are just like us, just in certain circumstances. It’s hard for them. This is a twilight melodrama. Twilight is total. Everywhere is dark. There is no way out. The deeper you live, the worse it gets. Nicholas doesn’t care if he dies or not. Complete doom.”

In general, the cop was caught with a secret, some kind of sensitive policeman, like Kira Muratova. Elena also needs to pick up the key. She is haunted by the image of her dead sister. She is able to see the dead. “I had a friend who saw different layers,” says Roman. – It can be considered a gift or a curse. Many churches see this as an occult principle that must be beaten out of a person. But in what way, no one really knows. In Elena, two principles are fighting. Her father is a preacher who suffered for the faith, and her mother is a witch.” There is a lot of strange, not quite convincing, deliberately invented here. All we see is a bunch of nightmare.”

The captain and police major, and this is she and he, have a very interesting relationship. It looks like they were lovers, but the feelings have long faded. The cop woman was played by a wonderful actress from St. Petersburg, Yulia Marchenko. In the movies, she is now like hot cakes. I just want to ask the directors: “Where have you, gentlemen, been before?” How much precious time wasted. After all, Julia was in sight, she played Anya with Nyakroshyus in The Cherry Orchard, worked in Alexandrinka with Valery Fokin, and now in the BDT. Judging by the stories of the actress, working with Roman is like being on a volcano, but once you try it, no matter what role, you will return to him. “In two or three days, the role changes,” Yulia says. – You create your own worlds, but it turns out that everything is much cooler. He lures. We had to wander along the roads for a long time to meet. Four days before filming, Roma decided that a woman would play the partner of the cop. When he told me about it, I was scared. You need to work out the character, acquire professional skills. I suffered terribly. In working with Roma, everything happens on an open emotion.”

Elena also has a companion (an expressive work by an actor from the BDT Kirill Polukhin) – he looks like an urka urka. He has a criminal past, but he is caring, strong, reliable. It’s better with him than with a restless cop.

Roman Mikhailov is finishing work on his third film “Vacation in October”, he filmed it in Petrozavodsk, although he originally planned to go to India. But circumstances have changed over the past year. In the end, everything turned out even cooler, according to Roman. He recently started filming his fourth film, where Fedor Lavrov will again play a cop. The series will follow. The performance is crazy and no resource. Roman Mikhailov believes that a movie does not need a lot of money and an influential producer. You can do without them.

“For 20 years, I had a practice very similar to a religious one – asceticism, concentration,” says Roman Mikhailov. – I developed my methods of meditation. I had specific goals. In 2018, all of them were implemented not even to the extent that I expected, but higher. Not only my dreams came true, but what I never dreamed of. I do not want to parasitize on my past, I will do something new every day. Maybe in texts in incomprehensible languages, in films, radio programs, performances, even for three spectators. I will create alternative universes where there will be other laws, relationships, feelings. We are creating a new subculture. Is independent cinema possible in Russia? Or there are only producers, grandmas, intrigues and you have to lick the floors? My script is wonderful, check it out. Nevermind! Gang need. We have many people, great forces. Let’s make a new movie.”

You can listen to Roman endlessly. He tells like a fairy tale. Sometimes they are more impressive than what you see on the screen. Although “A Tale for the Old” turned out to be a very bright and talented film debut.