The Theater of Nations decided to dive into the past by creating their own “Layer”

“In the Mood for Love” by Wong Kar-Wai will be staged in a Russian version with a Chinese accent

The Theater of Nations is working on the “Layer” project, which involves staging film scripts and immersing them in their cultural environment. Voluntarily or unwittingly, the bright filmmakers of one generation, who today are 65, have found themselves in the field of view of young directors. And some could be that old.

A performative reading of Alexey Balabanov’s latest script “My Brother Died” has already taken place in the New Space of the theater. The film director, who would have turned 65 in February, more than ten years ago, before his death, chose location in the Kostroma region, but did not have time to make the film.

“Layer” is conceived as an immersion in the atmosphere of time, finding out its details, and addressing iconic characters and figures. Within its framework, it is planned not only to stage performances, but to accompany them with installations, exhibitions, lectures, and concerts, which will allow one to “dig” and study the cultural layer. Where did this name come from and how do 30-40 year old authors interpret it? For them, this is a specific time period, namely the 2000s, that is, the recent past and at the same time, as they declare, archeology. They wanted to “dig” a layer that is still close and relevant to our contemporaries. In doing so, they intend to turn to film texts. So far, three scenarios have been chosen.

Alexey Balabanov was given three days. The punch-reading was accompanied by a dialogue with the producer of his films and friend Sergei Selyanov. The premiere was attended by Balabanov’s widow, artist Nadezhda Vasilyeva, who specially came from St. Petersburg. With her participation, a 12-minute installation was recorded as a video walk through the sanatorium where Alexey Balabanov spent his last days. Then the path lies towards Asian cinema, although we were thinking about Indian, Argentine, Iranian, Serbian. Traveling to Asia will be risky.

Galina Zaltsman, a student of Yuri Pogrebnichko, winner of the Golden Mask, has experience working with film texts. She is directing Youth, based on the 2017 film by the famous Chinese director Feng Xiaogang. It is based on the script of the popular writer Yan Geling, whose youth fell on the years of the Cultural Revolution in China. Feng Xiaogang is the same age as Balabanov. He is 65. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, he, like his heroes, performed in the dance ensemble of the People’s Liberation Army.

“The film is stunning with its beauty,” says Galina Zaltsman. “It’s about all-forgiving youth, which stays with a person forever, remains something beautiful, despite the context of the time, the situation outside the window, the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, repression, war. And this is also a story about invisible heroes, real idealists who are able to believe sincerely, even when all the foundations of this faith are trampled upon, destroyed, contrary to common sense and self-preservation. It’s not about love, but it’s about love.”

The plot will be told in its own way, while the fundamental lines will be preserved. The artists were attracted by young, recent university graduates. They will perform “Katyusha” and “Raise the fires, blue nights!” in Chinese, master the elements of Chinese opera and Chinese folk dance, and give up their own face. The director explained that the question arose about how to play the Chinese, and she chose the mask move. “We selected the greenest ones to immerse them in the horror of what was happening in China,” says Galina.

The most desperate was Artem Terekhin, who chose “In the Mood for Love” by Wong Kar-Wai. The film is very popular and is like a dance, it has a special movement and a unique style. No matter what you do, everything will be wrong. Comparisons are inevitable. Artem is a graduate of the Kazakh University of Arts, and managed to manage the Tilsit Theater and theaters in Lysva and Achinsk. He admitted that he felt Kar-Wai only after the 5th or 6th viewing. Then I wondered why the heroes did not become happy, and suggested that these were Kar-Wai’s parents, since the events took place when he was a child. And he was born in Shanghai. His parents moved to Hong Kong as the Cultural Revolution was gaining momentum. Now Kar-Wai is 65, he wrote the script himself.

Artem Terekhin attracted playwright Maxim Zhegalin to his project, with whom they will create an independent work, inspired by “In the Mood for Love.” They literally won’t reproduce it. Kar-Wai’s film became the impulse from which, as Artyom said, the Russian “In the Mood for Love” with Chinese notes should be born. It remains to rely on the madness of the brave.