Valery Fokin: “Petropolis” is a journey through the corridor of my memory

We continue to tell you about the most significant events of the 44th Moscow International Film Festival taking place in Moscow. This year, his program was replenished with a new competition “Russian Premieres” with its own jury and prize. The jury was headed by Russian director Sergei Ursulyak.

“If there are decent films in the competition, at least one or two,” Sergei Ursulyak shared his expectations before the start of the shows, “that will be a sufficient message for me. I have been to festivals as a jury member many times, so I realized that there is no need to wait for anything. Therefore, if you like something decent, lively, touching, relating to a person in a human way, it will be great. That’s why I agreed to participate in the jury, because there is no spectator better than me.

Among the already shown films of the Russian Premieres is the film Petropolis by Valery Fokin, which the audience saw last weekend.

The action of “Petropolis” takes place in several countries – in Russia, America and Japan. The main character is the son of a family of Russian emigrants, Vladimir Ognev. At the beginning of the 21st century, he is the owner of a brilliant scientific career and a happy personal life, and lives and works in the United States. After defending his dissertation, Vladimir receives an offer from the UN special department to study the scenario: how will humanity react if it finds out that an alien civilization exists and has been in constant contact with us for many years? Over time, Vladimir realizes that this scenario is far from being as fantastic as it seems.

The picture was shot by a wonderful theater director Vladimir Fokin, artistic director of the “Alexandrinka” in St. Petersburg.

– In the process of creating a film, – comments Valery Fokin, – you should always limit the “theater”, especially when working with artists. But, speaking of form, as a theater director, I like the combination of theater and cinema. Especially in this film, which can be attributed to science fiction. Therefore, there was enough free movement in time and space. I would call this picture a journey through the corridor of my memory. So in this case, theatricality helped and was appropriate.

In the central role is the magnificent Lenkom artist Anton Shagin, with whom Valery Fokin has staged several productions at the Alexandrinsky Theatre.

“The preparation,” says Anton Shagin, “took more time and caused more difficulties than the execution itself inside the space, which was wonderfully organized by our artists. It was necessary to go to work absolutely fearlessly. We filmed for about a month. There was no time to build up, but I prepared in advance, because my text is specific.

Actors Vladimir Koshevoy and Junsuke Kinoshita also starred in the film.

“I had no difficulty playing a foreigner,” comments Vladimir Koshevoy. – I just went to the cinema, they took me for him. As Valery Vladimirovich said, I just needed to powder and enter the frame.

In Japan, the name of Valery Fokin, it turns out, is well known.

“I personally adore his work and am very glad that I was able to play in this picture,” says artist Junsuke Kinoshita. “Our artists really did a great job, I was delighted with the film set and the way Tokyo was presented there. So I want to say a huge thank you to Valery Fokin and the entire film crew.

Cinematographer Ilya Ovsenev did his best to achieve the perfect combination between theater and cinema on the screen, shooting the film in one huge pavilion, which was built specifically for filming. Many Russian films have been affected by the pandemic, but Petropolis has undergone an interesting metamorphosis – in a sense, the pandemic helped it. Initially, it was planned to shoot a picture in different countries of the world, the group even went to choose a location in Japan. But, when it turned out to be impossible, the artistic solution was rethought. This is how a multi-level decoration of several thousand square meters was born, built on the site of a hangar being prepared for demolition. Tokyo appeared in it, and an American bar, and a house by the ocean in Florida. And this, according to the producers of the tape, is the biggest decoration in the history of the latest Russian cinema.

Elena Bulova.

On the picture: film crew of the film “Petropolis” directed by Valery Fokin.

Photo provided by the press service of the festival