Russian auteur cinema will be seen in Latin America: the need for inventions is cunning

The round-the-world tour starts in Moscow with the film “Kapkan”. Its director Galina Urazova lives on the Rodniki farm in the Voronezh region, where she made her debut film almost without words – about loved ones who have lost the ability to hear each other. “Off-Season” is the story of modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, those same Pskov teenagers who died in front of social media users. Swan Paradise is about a governor who, on the eve of his re-election, entrusted his wife with the staging of Tchaikovsky’s ballet with the participation of the common people. The hero of “Rapana” was an actor who was forced to leave the theater and start a new life. In Molodist, a man who has been missing for twenty years returns to his native Yakut village, and no one has been waiting for him for a long time.

We are talking with Maxim Dobromyslov about a fantastic voyage.

Where did this crazy idea come from?

You know that I am a crazy person. The main thing about this tour is that no one has ever done anything like this. We will show that it is possible, having nothing, to take and do something unusual, not to wait for help, just to get together and fly. Recently, we have already undertaken a European tour with the painting “Off-Season” by Alexander Hunt. We realized that people really want to watch movies, and the idea came up to organize a trip to Latin America, to show our movies there, which no one has seen in these countries. And the people there are like us, they are close to the Russian spirit, they love Russian TV shows. We agreed on everything in Brazil, Argentina, Chile. We are waiting there. The excitement is incredible. In Brazil, we planned a trip to Sao Paulo, but we are asked to come to three more cities, the costs are fully covered.

Who are these amazing people who are hungry for Russian cinema?

— Community of Russians in Brazil. There are also many descendants of our compatriots who arrived after the revolution, entire clusters inhabited by immigrants from Russia. They are all very interested. And it is important for us to communicate with people so that they see films not only on online platforms, they watch films that you will never see anywhere. The inviting party pre-watched the films. They have a lack of information about Russia. We are too far apart.

– In fact, your voyage is calculated at random. The need for inventions is cunning, right?

– Of course, as is usually the case in art cinema. An idea has arisen, and you are going into an unknown abyss of happiness and adventure. We have no support from either the state or patrons. This is an independent tour. We are going ourselves. Such a punk party. We arrive in a city where we have several venues, show different films, move further from country to country.

– During the European tour, who came to the shows?

– There have always been many spectators from the post-Soviet space – Russians, Ukrainians, Kyrgyz … In Bologna there were only Italians, in Paris – Parisians. Only the Catalans came to one of the shows in Barcelona. They asked questions that no one ever asked us anywhere else. Now we have experience. We know where to go and where not to. We will show films where they will give us a platform: in cinemas, theaters, bars and restaurants, in the open air. If it is a flat and ten spectators, we will show our films to them. You could call it a punk adventure.

— What surprises did you encounter in Europe?

“It turned out that you can’t drive there by car. Initially, we wanted to travel all over Europe in a minibus, but then you are driving all the time, the group does not rest. In the end, we changed to a regular bus, which was much more convenient. We were warned not to show films in Russian houses, places of large concentrations of people, because Ukrainians would come and beat us. But there was nothing of the kind, although the Ukrainians came. About 200 people gathered in the Russian House in Paris. We also showed movies at an abandoned factory, pre-painted the wall under the screen, set up a projector, threw ottomans … About 300 people came, including musicians, who then arranged a concert. That is, it is like a farce, a circus on wheels. You go and someone joins you all the time. We went to a bar in Berlin to see how we could organize a show there. And it was so amazing! When I found out that there are 500 bottles of expired beer, and they want to throw it away, I told the owner: “Why throw it away? Ours will drink.” And they drank. Nobody blinked an eye.

We do not take money from viewers. True, there was an experience when we said that if someone wants to support us, then please. They found a sombrero in a garbage dump in Portugal, and people threw money into this hat. We then went to the restaurant and to the sea with the whole hall, drank wine and talked about everything in the world.

Yes, it’s an old tradition. This is what they do now on Broadway, at the theater festival in Avignon: they put up a hat, and the audience leaves money. I remember how Mark Rozovsky in Avignon stood, as they say, with outstretched hand. This is a continuation of the theater, a game, and the viewer is willingly included in it.

— In Portugal, we put a box with a hole. I didn’t even open it – I gave it to the bartender, who helped us a lot. Then he wrote to me and thanked me very much: there were 2,750 euros in the box. In Spain, people also helped us – they treated us, invited us to visit, they said right away: “Let’s go live with us.” We often stayed not in hotels, but at someone’s house. In Alicante, a stranger met us in an incredible Mercedes at the bus we arrived on. He took us everywhere, showed us everything. I asked him who he was, to which he replied: “I was told that I needed to meet you and take you around the city.”

– The world is not without good people.

Everything is done for them. We have so many amazing relationships! In Cannes, a couple with a child passed by the Alexander III cinema, where the show was held. They went to the “Off-season”, and then flew to Berlin for us. One guy accompanied the film in Alicante, Madrid and Barcelona.

“But you can’t rely on fate alone. So you can stay outside.

– We book some hotels and apartments in advance, but globally we are in favor of being received locally. In Portugal, a girl Tamara from Ukraine invited us to her place: “Come, I have a big apartment.” And we lived with her.

– After Chukotka, you are not afraid of anything. When the planes weren’t flying because of the blizzard, you lived in a garage waiting for a flight to be closer to the airport.

– Yes, there was paradise! We found a common language with my caring patron Alexander Ivanovich. I couldn’t get out because of bad weather, and he, too, is a hostage of life. I spent three or four days in a garage in a field, sleeping between cars on a bed. You open the door and the blizzard blows you away…

Will you show five or six pictures? How were they selected?

Swan Lake is a very talented film and Anton Bilzho is an underrated director. Rapana is also an underrated movie. Nobody saw him, no venues take him, and Vitaly Suslin is a genius of Russian cinematography. We must help him. I studied with him at VGIK, he is my classmate. Sasha Khant and I also studied together. And Galya Urazova needs help, and Dima Davydov. Dima was in New Zealand with his debut “Bonfire in the Wind”. He has grown a lot as a director. Movies like “Youth” simply do not exist now. How did he come up with all this? In a movie, almost shot on the knee, houses are on fire, and such a cool thing happens behind the scenes … Let’s take the debut film “Sisters” by Ivan Petukhov.

– In your non-resident “gang” is dominated by people from the Voronezh region. Will everyone go the whole multi-day journey?

– The director Vitaly Suslin will go on tour – he is from Novovoronezh, the cameraman and Sasha Hunt’s wife Natasha Makarova – she is from Voronezh. Sasha will join later, maybe in Peru or Chile, as he is filming in Vladivostok. He is from Khanty-Mansiysk. Galina Urazova lives on the Rodniki farm in the Voronezh region. I myself am from the Voronezh region, from Ostrogozhsk. Producer Larisa Oleinik is also not from Moscow. Dmitry Davydov is from Yakutsk. Our only Muscovite is Anton Bilzho.

– How is the route built?

– We cannot fly directly from Russia to Latin America, so we will first go to South Africa. Since we are in Africa, why not show our movies there? There were plans to call in Addis Ababa, but it did not work out. From South Africa we fly to Sao Paulo, then to Rio de Janeiro, then to Buenos Aires, where there are now a lot of Russians. We’ll get in the car there, cross the South American continent, drive to Santiago. From Chile we plan to fly to Peru, where there will be a screening in Lima. Then we will go to the capital of Ecuador, Quito. Plans to visit the Galapagos Islands. We fly from Quito to Mexico City. Since the final is supposed to be in Mexico, it is strange to return to Moscow from there: you have to fly across the Pacific Ocean and make a round-the-world trip.

From Mexico City, we will fly to Tokyo, where we dream of organizing a show, but so far negotiations are underway, and there is nothing concrete. If it is not possible to fly in, then we will show a movie without our own presence. It’s OK. We will make a flight through Tokyo without an exit, immediately go to Bali, and then to Papua New Guinea to cover all the continents, Australia and Oceania. Instead of Tokyo, we can fly to New Zealand, to Auckland, and from New Guinea to Singapore or Malaysia. How will it turn out. Then we will go to Turkey and return to Moscow at the end of April.

– You talk about it so easily, as if the world is without borders …

– These are visa-free countries, except for Japan and New Zealand. We do everything ourselves, we decided not to depend on anyone, just take it and fly. We do not mind if partners join us, but globally this is our initiative, which we ourselves will pull. I’m all for this adventure. If someone supports us, we will be glad.

Author’s cinema is always a little crazy. Do not be afraid. We are making a film about our European tour. Everyone told us that we are fools, why do we need this? After all, happiness is not in money. If we do something that no one has done before us, and our directors see the world, then this will embellish our cinema in the future. I’m not from a large cinematic family, I have not achieved something incredible. I am a producer of auteur cinema, and it always involves the invention of something new, a way out of a difficult situation. We are not supported by a big company, no one sponsors us. We decided that it was in a difficult time for the whole world that we could go somewhere and show films that people made themselves, without state support, with their own money. How can you not support them?

Who will you leave your children to?

Filmmakers have such a difficult fate that their children are always with someone. The daughter of Natasha Makarova and Sasha Hunt, Sashenka, spent several months with us on the set of “Off-season”. We had to live in a destroyed house – there was no better housing. We were afraid that a rat would bite our nose off. I also have two daughters. Maybe my wife Olya will join our tour. She is a director, and I want to see something new too.

Olya is talented. I hope he makes a feature film.

– She made the film “In the Dark” about a teacher at a film university, about education in Russia in general, and recently finished editing “Milk Girl”, with Liza Yankovskaya in the title role. It’s all short.

The main thing is that we develop, because now there is a slight stagnation. And everything needs to be booming. Our story comes from the heart, not from “I want to make money.” I’m talking about movie-statements. If a person is very worried about something, then he wants to talk about it. Let the directors speak out and think that anything is possible. And we will be Columbus and Magellan, even if we die in the Pacific Ocean or we are eaten in New Guinea. I am for the experiment.