Viktor Sukhorukov played the Orthodox Tatar Mikulai

In the competition of the 31st International Festival “Kinoshock”, held in Anapa, a film from Tatarstan “Mikulai” by Ilshat Rakhimbay participates. The role of the Kryashen, an Orthodox Tatar, whom his mother bore for 12 months, was played by the “federal” Viktor Sukhorukov.

The social parable, turning into an ethno-thriller, tells about the loss of the metaphysical essence of village life. The script is based on a play by the Tatar playwright Mansur Gilyazov, substantially reworked by a young film crew. The action of the play, staged in several Tatar theaters, takes place in the Kryashen village of Sarsaz Kul, which means “yellow clay lake”. The Tatars professing Orthodoxy lived in it. On his last day, old Mikulai lives his entire earthly life. Mansur Gilyazov wrote that there are fewer and fewer villages, and people, drugged by the Internet and the golden calf, rushed to the stinking cities. His Mikulay resists the end of the world. The younger generation saw new meanings.

This is a story not just about a surviving inhabitant of a godforsaken village, but about oblivion into which a person plunges, not wanting to know what is happening in the world. Although the coffin of a victim of the Afghan war is ritually carried through the village. Two years ago, when the film was being shot, no one attached any importance to this majestic scene. And now she has become sinister.

Mikulay is a mature man, and his wife is young (excellent work by Ekaterina Ageeva). She is expecting a child for 16 months. Her belly is like a ball. Yes, and Mikulai’s mother bore 12 months. A guy appears in the village, claiming that he is the son of Mikulai from Anfisa. It is as if inanimate, some kind of reminder of the bright side of his father’s consciousness. Although it has more darkness, the charm is negative. The son says to his father: “I want you to stop playing with dolls and leave.” Walking through the dead village begins. There is a mortal fear behind every turn, so that you shudder in the darkness of the cinema hall.

When the project was just launched, the young team positioned themselves as provincials who decided to break the idea that everything is possible only in the capital. We decided to develop regional cinema so that those who studied in Moscow had the opportunity to work at home. Mikulay was supposed to be shot by an adult director who suddenly turned into politics, and the project passed to the young ones. The actors have also changed. As a result, the “federals” were invited, as Russians were called not only in Tatarstan, but until recently in the post-Soviet Central Asian republics. I remember that at an event in Uzbekistan, the waiters moved Muscovites with the words that these places were intended for “nationals”, their own, Uzbeks, and not for “federals”. Rudiment is not outlived. Ilshat is sure that none of the Tatar actors would pull the main roles.

“Mikulai” was filmed near Kazan, they traveled to 17 villages until they found a Kryash village, where they were allowed to repaint the fences. And the village on the screen is elegant, the walls of the houses are decorated with ornaments. Women in national costumes are beautiful, and how they sing! A dozen grandmothers live in the village. Every morning they came to the site with their chairs, opened their umbrellas, and watched what was happening until the evening.

At Kinoshock, the picture caused a controversial reaction. Uzbek director Khilol Nasimov, who presented the film “Heritage”, asked bluntly: “Are you a Muslim?” Having received the answer: “I am closer to Sufism, I have other cultures in me,” he reacted sharply: “How so? Either Muslim or not.

Ilshat Rakhimbay, 34, a graduate of the Faculty of Cinema and Television at the Kazan University of Culture and Arts, has been filming alternative Tatar videos. It all started with resistance to vaccination and a black eye, received in kindergarten. Then he showed character. He entered the music department of the Pedagogical University, and three years later he abruptly decided to become a director. Back in the seventh grade, his father gave him a camera, and Ilshat began to shoot everything – nails, nostrils … When the directing department was opened in Kazan, he entered there, realizing that one had to learn the profession on one’s own.

How did Viktor Sukhorukov appear in the project? The script was not written for him. It never crossed my mind that an actor of such a level, again a “federal”, could act in films with debutants from Tatarstan. However, through the chairman of the local Union of Cinematographers Ildar Yagafarov and his classmate Vladimir Vdovichenkov, the script came to Sukhorukov. A week later, he said something like this: “What is the strength, brother? in the script.” The role of the son of Mikulai was offered to Vdovichenkov, but he was busy. A Kazan guy appeared as a variant, similar to Sukhorukov. We looked at 70 actors before we settled on Ivan Dobronravov. He does not look like a Kryashen, which was required. According to the script, his hero is the son of Anfisa (she was played by Varvara Shmykova), and she is arriving. Timur Bekmambetov, who lived in Kazan at that time, suggested the move with his son. It is difficult to judge how much it helped, but the picture was taken with a confident hand. The operator was a native of Kazan, Yuri Danilov, who shot all the clips of Morgenstern. It was he who advised to collect actors to match Sukhorukov.

“Viktor Sukhorukov is an energy block. We understood that this was absolute mentoring on his part,” says Ilshat. — The level of professionalism that he showed set the bar for our team. He always has at least five or six options for the game. He never ate. It seems that Viktor Sukhorukov was always in my head. There were no other options.”

I had to overcome puritanical views, to listen that “the Kryashens cannot think about boobs”, that the topic of erotica is unacceptable. At Kinoshock, the Uzbek colleague was indignant that Mikulai’s mother Anfisa was giving love lessons to local teenagers, and this was disgusting to his soul. It is with the presence of such episodes that the lack of a budget for the picture is connected. The Ministry of Culture refused to support. “Often the authors themselves cannot afford much. During filming, I also struggled with fears. They are connected with the fact that I will have to answer for everyone, whether I can be humble, overcome destructive things in myself, in which the devil is hidden. Where you least expect. The little devils have already begun to show their tails and hooves. There were many. I understood that this would be the battle of life. You could backtrack. Many do not recognize me: the voice is different, the face has changed during the filming. The film taught us humility. I understood that we were carrying something very tender, and at any moment it could be destroyed.