“Many children live openly. And in this they are the winners "

The premiere of the film "Children 404" will be held on this environment - within the framework of the Sinma Belief project. Our partner helps us in this show - the Reality project. You can find out how to get to the premiere, you can by this link .

- You both shot documentaries about the cult of Lenin, Pavel is engaged in animation, Askold is the co -author of the film “Winter, leave!”. How did you decide to make a film about teenagers-hei?

Pavel Loparev: I began to think about this year ago. Then it seemed to me that it was necessary to hurry, that some kind of clash, a conflict in society, that everything would settle in a year, tolerance would reign right now. But then I started another project, and I never approached the film about gays. Only three years later I decided to turn to Askold with this idea.

Askold Kurov: And a year and a half ago I read an article about a couple of tractor drivers-geys who live together on a dying collective farm, and wanted to make a film about them. I tried to contact them for a very long time, but it somehow did not work out.

At first we had an abstract idea with Pasha: a film about LGBT in connection with the law on gay propaganda. We started research, met with activists, went to meetings, searched for heroes. Found a cool story: a self -defense squad. This is a group of LGBT activists who, on street promotions, had to protect the participants from assaults of homophobes. These volunteers were engaged in the usual section of martial arts. In the hall where they trained, a huge imperial flag hung, nationalists were engaged there during the day, and gays came in the evening. It was a cool story because it broke all stereotypes.

Loparev: Well, the movie is straight. The coach knew that he was engaged in gays, but did not want others to know, so he did not allow him to shoot. As a result, one of the organizers of the self-defense group, trying to “pay off” from us, sent a link to the “Children-404” group (Internet project in support of LGBT teenage, where their letters are published.- Ed. ). The group arose in March, and the idea of ​​the film in September, when the group already had 500-600 stories.

Kurov: We went to Lena Klimova, a girl who created this group to Nizhny Tagil. We stayed with her for two days, and she wrote about us to all the children who by that time sent their stories to the project. It was more than 700 people. 76 said they agree. As a result, we recorded 45 anonymous interviews.

- The names of the heroes, of course, had to hide?

Kurov: We changed their voices to all children and did not use geographical names anywhere. At first we thought that we would meet with the heroes, but it turned out to be unsafe for both adolescents and for us. Our first hero, a 16-year-old gay, lived in a tiny village in the Urals. He made us a conspiratorial meeting, but then it turned out that his mother, who opened his account, apparently decided that we were pedophiles, and prepared an ambush for him from some point. Of course, it can be understood ...

"Children 404" earlier accept themselves. But parents are not at all ready for this.

Loparev: Then we learned that such stories are not uncommon, parents sometimes open the correspondence. For one boy, his mother works in the FSB, opened his box, Facebook, arranged external observation, presented photographs - proof of his dates.

Kurov: We decided that we would first take the interview remotely, and then, when we talk with the children, we will go to them. But when we began to collect an interview on Skype and the phone, we realized that this was already interesting and valuable material. Then the following problem arose: since the movie is a visual thing, we had to see something in the frame, and we asked adolescents to remove “their world”.

Loparev: We did not ask to shoot something specific-for example, how they humiliate the school or scandals with parents; Just what is interesting and safe. It turned out about five hours of very different videos: a trip in a car with mom, a new year meeting, shopping, room tour ...

Sometimes a certain dissonance arose: children say something very sad, and at the same time they laugh on the video, run with a girlfriend around the city, take their feet off, arrange a mapping show from mittens.

Kurov: Although there are very sad videos: for example, a girl who loves to walk alone on the roof of an abandoned hospital, and you just feel her loneliness. Or the boy takes off school corridors, and you constantly hear: “Pidor! Pidor! "

Loparev: At first we did not hear these screams, and when we raised the sound a little, we distinguished us that with an interval of a couple of minutes different voices-from babies to high school students-shout to him: “Pidor! Gomik! Fu, bl ***, fall off. " They constantly stick to him, lift up. It is very difficult for him, he does not live with his parents, because those who pursue him were guarded by the house, beaten, doused with urine and even tried to rape him. At first he returned home by taxi, then moved, took a free visit at school ...

- The film trailer is almost entirely about one hero, a completely adult.

Kurov: This is Pasha, one of the main characters, he is 18. When we just decided to make a film about children, I went to make a rally in support of Navalny for the “Term” project. And after the rally I saw Pasha. He walked with a poster about Navalny, was bright, unusual, walked with this poster in the center, became a single picket in front of the Bolshoi Theater, in the subway cars ... Pasha immediately dumped his story. He is from Ulyanovsk, but at the age of 14 he made a camming out, and his students began to poison him at his school. At 16, he decided to move to Moscow. He lived here alone, graduated from school - children were normally treated, but they poisoned the teachers, entered the university in Canada, was going to go there to study journalism and hopes that he would remain there forever.

The film has another interesting character. Such a modern teenager who is in love with a guy from a neighboring courtyard, his peer. Having learned about this, the mother of that guy forbade them to meet, closed the son of the house for all the New Year holidays, and then our hero with friends made a picket under his windows. The boy’s mother screamed: “I will tear your eggs!” - And they chanted, stood with posters: “Gosha, you are the best!”, “Love is stronger than hatred.” They didn’t write anything about LGBT. “I understand that this can be regarded as propaganda,” the 17-year-old guy told us.

Loparev: The film includes fragments of only 25 interviews. Some we did not take, oddly enough, because they are too strong. We did not want to shock, did not want “tin” and chose simple, understandable stories.

Kurov: We wanted the film to be wider than the problems of LGBT teenage. It's just about how to be different.

Loparev: Yes, since there is almost no talk about love in the film - but there is no sex at all - the issue of orientation gradually fades into the background. We hear the stories of children, we understand that they are others and they are pursuing them for this. In a sense, it is even more complicated than when, for example, you are a representative of a national minority. At least you know about this from birth and you are accepted in the family. And here you suddenly, at some point, understand that you are different, and you remain one on one with it.

- What dangers do these children face?

Kurov: Often, if parents find out that the child is gay, this threatens a visit to a psychiatrist, a priest. We shot two guys, their parents kicked out of the house, and they found refuge in the village, in an unfamiliar woman who was found through the Children-404 group.

Loparev: Before they got to her, both already thought to do prostitution in order to survive. They talked about this as a joke, but in fact it is a real prospect. When the guys are kicked out of the house, squeezed out into the street, they find themselves in a different, quite marginal, environment.

Another heroine is a girl from an Orthodox family, the daughter of a priest, herself is a very believer. Naturally, this is a difficult case.

There is a 14-year-old girl who lives in the village. An adult man literally opened a hunt for it - I am surprised at the participation of adults - I began to poison through the Internet, call to school, parents, and the administration of the village. He brought to the point that she began to be pursued, beaten and, as a result, registered in the commission on minors on the basis that she allegedly promotes homosexuality. After the adoption of the law on gay propaganda, some guys began problems with the school administration. Someone saves that they study well.

- It turns out that these children are forced to be successful to protect themselves? Does their differentness stimulate them?

Kurov: Sometimes it is. If only you are not hit every day at school, when you cannot concentrate on your studies at all. Many with whom we spoke are dreaming of going abroad, so they are already focusing on professions that can be in demand there: design, programming ...

- And many want to leave?

Loparev: Somewhere two-thirds. Some of them say that they do not want, but it seems to them that in a situation that is pumped around LGBT, they will not be able to be open, lead a full life. Adult gays who grew up in a completely different country have already come to terms with this. But many "children 404" are not ready for such compromises.

Photos of children come to life at the expense of your friends, neighbors, relatives. You understand that they are somewhere nearby. Just hidden.

- Can I formulate how “children 404” differ from ordinary teenagers?

Kurov: Many of them have gone to their 16-17 years. Sometimes they are better adapted to life. But they have to live the future. They say: "I will endure what is happening to me now." But then they are going to become doctors, scientists, translators, artists ... They have serious plans for life.

- Do you need to endure relations with parents?

Loparev: Yes, the worst thing is when you are not accepted in the family. Previously, before the Internet, a person understood that he, say, gay, and then could hate himself for this for a long time, encrypted from everyone. From the awareness of homosexuality to acceptance of itself passed for many years. And “Children 404” is a completely different generation. They, in fact, live and are formed in the global information space. They accept themselves before. And after a year or two, they are ready for an open conversation with parents, but the problem is that parents are completely not ready for this.

Kurov: Because children are sitting on the Internet, and parents watch the channel "Russia" and Dmitry Kiselev. They know about homosexuality from completely different sources. It also struck me that some children accept themselves, they talk about their love openly. Moreover, often there is no physical relationship yet, only romantic feelings. They can be crazy in love with correspondence, but for them this is enough to present themselves to their parents and fight for their love.

- It turns out that you did not take off the victims, but the winners?

Loparev: At the very beginning, we really thought that we were making a movie about victims. The victims of this law, the adoption of which were stopped by either the pickets or the protest rally conducted by LGBT activists. All. The law is adopted. And children in theory should be the most defenseless in this situation. But in the cinema everything turned differently. Many children do not seem at all victims. They decide to live openly, and in this they are the winners, probably.

- The film was shot from last September to December. Has the attitude to LGBT teenage changed during this time?

Kurov: Yes, on the one hand, LGBT in sight, teachers and parents become more intolerant. On the other hand, all this gave our heroes a reason to unite, to get support.

- You do not give a word to homophobes, parents who do not accept their children?

Loparev: At first we thought about it, then we realized that there was a homophobic inside everyone. We have this format of conversation in the kitchen. Suddenly, fate brought you up with a teenager-geume who simply, openly talks about the persecution at school, about falling in love, parents ...

Kurov: We removed the homophobia reflected. Children are talking about her all the time. This is enough.

Loparev: One child says a very simple phrase: I would like to look at Milonov if he had a child with the same problems. He says it calmly, does not break into a cry, into insults. And this is the intonation that we wanted to save in the film.

Kurov: We would like this film to give these children a voice, show that this is not some kind of mythical gay ...

Loparev: We use photos from the Children-404 group in the film. The guys have faced faces there, but the facial features are still guessed. And when you look at them, you catch yourself thinking that you subconsciously begin to look for similarity with familiar people. Photos of children begin to come to life at the expense of your friends, neighbors, relatives, begin to populate your real world, and you understand that they are generally somewhere near you. Just hidden.

- A sad question: what are the film’s chances in Russia?

Loparev: Only on the Internet. Festivals again, but this is a narrow audience.

Kurov: In Russia, I think, festivals will not be taken. One has already refused. More precisely, they contacted us from there and carefully asked: “You will not participate in our festival because of the theme of the film?” But we decided that the film should be available as many people in Russia as possible. Therefore, the Internet is here, festivals are in the West. From the very beginning, we had several offers from large Western producers, but we refused. They wanted complete independence. Although, of course, we understand that if they want, we can still blame us that we sold to the West. But the film was created at the expense of "folk financing." We organized an Internet fundraising campaign, and 244 people from different countries donated money for this project.