Liza Skvortsova has been filming a cartoon based on media headlines for more than two years

Liza Skvortsova graduated from the art faculty of VGIK, became the author of the project “Lullabies of the World” of sixty three-minute films. The writer Marina Moskvina considers the best animated reading of her prose to be Liza’s work “Fish Day” from the animated series “Vezuha!”. She participated in the work on the TV series “The Adventures of Petya and the Wolf”, shot several short stories for “Literal Stories” based on the book “When A was a Crossbow” by Evgeny Klyuev, where she became not only a director, but also an artistic director.

Last year, at the Pushkin and … animation festival in Pushkinsky Gory, Lisa became the record holder for the number of screen adaptations. Four of her works based on Russian, English and Polish poetry took part in the competition at once: the two-minute “Tuchkin Things” by Mayakovsky and “Akkerman Steppes” by Adam Mickiewicz, the seven-minute “Duck and Kangaroo” by Edward Lear and “The Little Girl Pulls off the Tablecloth” by the poem Wislava Szymborska, which lasts a little less than three minutes. Liza has a great sense of literature and interprets it in an original way.

And here is a new twist, partly towards documentary animation. For which special thanks to the absurd headlines in the media. “Deer Grisha, having got to Omsk, became a man”; “A roommate from Omsk dug up his predecessor in the garden”; “In the Irkutsk region, a bear stole two guns from a hunter, and broke the third one”; “The birth of a circus bear on the Ural track made 18 unmarried acrobats burst into tears”; “The Kuzbass man could not steal a tractor and rode it in the garage” – these pearls are easy to find on the Internet. They made an impression on Lisa, and a 15-minute picture “Omichka” appeared, the very name of which gave rise to a lot of questions. It turned out that many do not know that this is what the inhabitants of Omsk are called, just as they have no idea where to put the stress in a word that is outlandish for them.

Headlines on the screen come to life, materialize into images. The song “There are so many unmarried guys on the streets of Saratov” sounds, and concrete giants of balls will roll along these same streets. A resident of Omsk is engaged in home canning, rolls cucumbers into jars, at the same time watches TV, where you can hear something that will amaze any imagination. And at this time, a miniature admirer with a bouquet of flowers climbs up the pipe to her. Meanwhile, the absurdity is gaining momentum every minute …

We talked with Lisa Skvortsova about how her painting was born.

– Why is your heroine from Omsk, and, say, not from Kineshma or Bryansk?

– I saw a headline about a roommate from Omsk, who dug up in the garden of his predecessor, and it seemed so funny that I wanted to do something about it. Then I came across a collection of headlines collected by the musician Yuri Uskov. I got the impression that the funniest of them are about Omsk. The collection inspired me to play with these titles and put them together in a puzzle. And since the invention began with a headline about a roommate from Omsk, she herself turned out to be the main character. Yes, and the word “Omichka” is pleasant.

– Many viewers, your colleagues did not know its meaning …

– That’s why I said from the stage, presenting the film, that an Omsk woman is a resident of Omsk.

– There were films at the festival where the woman is not exactly a monster, but she is frightening, pink, blue, black. Omichka is a difficult woman?

– Yes, it’s not complicated at all. Simple, muscular, physically strong. I wanted it to be powerful and sexually attractive to both men and women. A triumph of healthy, steaming from the movement of the flesh. As for the pink woman, it’s a pity that the jury didn’t mention the painting Glade-25 by Nadya Goldman. This is a very powerful film, relevant to many people who are looking for a way out of a dark period of life. It seems that in Russia most of the animation community wants a “sweet and plausible movie”, and traumatic, sharp material is not perceived. We have a tendency to be infantile, afraid of the opportunity to talk about difficult topics. It is strange, because for all the pain, this is a light, reconciling movie with a powerful therapeutic effect.

– Your son Mark worked as a composer at Omichka. I remember him very young. You can say that he grew up at the festival, and now he has become a co-author of your films.

– It’s so cool! He wrote music for three of my films: “Duck and Kangaroo”, “Tuchkin’s Things”, “Omichka”. Mark has been composing music since childhood. He will soon turn 20. If someone is looking for a composer, you can recommend him. Mark plays several musical instruments, composes and records himself. Works not only with me, but also with other directors. In Moscow, he had a group and a co-author with whom they wrote music for themselves. When I invite Mark to my film, he is usually busy with something.

– A lot of young people came to animation. At the festival, the change of generations was acutely felt. Did you feel like a stranger at this “celebration of life” among strangers?

– Initially, I had the feeling that the celebration of life on the current page of history is not entirely appropriate, since there are gloomy circumstances. But at the same time, the joy of meeting is valuable. It is important to devote the festival days to watching films, to discuss something, to talk about animation, to meet like-minded people and friends, who are less and less around. Life has scattered people. There were none of those whom we are accustomed to seeing there. They are sorely lacking. The meaning of the festival lies in meetings with wonderful people.

– Lately you have made several small paintings based on literary works, based on the poems of Mayakovsky, Mickiewicz and other poets. Omichka has opened a new direction for you. Are little stories a thing of the past?

– With small stories, everything happened by chance. An almanac based on the poetry of the Silver Age was created at Soyuzmultfilm. In parallel, the Polish Institute of Adam Mickiewicz offered to work with poetry. It was not my idea, but I accepted the offer. Everything worked out by itself. And “Omichka” was very difficult to do. I’m tired. It takes some time to come to your senses and understand how to live on.

– What was the difficulty? In the big timing?

– No, it’s not about him. I wanted to make a funny movie with my friends, but times got tough and it wasn’t funny at all. I worked for a very long time. Usually in animation 10 minutes are made into 10 months. And I worked for almost two and a half years. More than necessary. People were leaving. There were some things that changed my attitude to the headlines in the media. In general, it became difficult to do something on this topic.

– But a new star appeared – the artist Dusya Geller. There was a lot of talk about her during the days of the festival.

She is very young and bright. She has her own language. I was happy to work with her and want more. She is an incredible author.

– The film opened you up from a new side. What is changing, what technologies are emerging?

– In recent years, the most valuable thing for me from the new that has appeared is documentary animation. It is becoming more and more, but we are not used to it yet. And I’m much more interested in what happens in life than what strange people have fantasized about. I do not want to offend anyone, but fantasies in isolation from reality interest me much less than what is happening in the world. Documentary animation is an amazingly interesting genre. There are some very strong works. I hope that there will be more of them at the Suzdal festival. I also have a large degree of documentary in Omichka. These are real headlines and real events are described – all the nonsense that happens in reality.

– You managed to say a lot with ironic kindness, but you could ridicule evil …

– I would not operate with the categories of good and evil. Don’t want. Everything that is in my film is the reality in which we live. Strange things are happening, and the press writes about it in the same strange words. This is surprising, but it also explains many of the events that happen to us, makes us think.