Loneliness in the city of Dreams

The name of the new film by Angelina Nikonova is deliberately written with a spelling error: Welkome Home. The heroes of the picture are emigrants living in the most tempting city of the world-New York: a Russian adventurer who came to his American director-director, an old woman who does not know a word in English, a beginner actor-Armenian, forced to earn a living by selling carpets, and his nephew is a transgender who turned into a woman from relatives.

New York in the film by Angelina Nikonova is not at all a terrible "city of the yellow devil", devouring emigrants. It all ends well for everyone; Even the sheep that they want to sacrifice survives. In the end, this is a comedy that is not at all like Nikonova’s first film, the drama "Portrait at Twilight." At the Karlovar film festival, the film participated in the competition, did not receive awards, but the public liked it. After the European premiere, I asked Angelina Nikonov about New York, anti-Americanism, homophobia and prohibit non-normative vocabulary in the cinema.

- Welkome Home , in addition to the fact that this is a love story, also a film about enterprise, ingenuity of emigrants. The first thing an emigrant needs is to adapt, especially in a city like New York ...

- Yes, this is partly about the ingenuity of Russian people. Armenian heroes in the film are not so cunning for fiction.

-New York in the film is not a city that a tourist sees, New York Manhattan, skyscrapers. What is your New York?

-I deliberately did not use the views of New York, I wanted to leave the story at the eye level. New York for me is a city, on the one hand, of absurd freedom, and on the other-loneliness, a large lack of freedom. Non -free is dictated, first of all, the limited circle of communication. I had no problems with the language, I always spoke in English freely, but I really lacked Russian-language communication in New York. Still, I am a Russian person, Russian culture in every time of my. This is the limitation and is huge. Another point that America is very culturally divorced from Russia, from Europe. When I lived in New York and came to Russia for two to three weeks, I understood how hungry I was on cultural events. Because, living in Russia, you read everything that happens in Europe, and Asia, and in the whole world. In America, this is not.

- And you returned to Russia for good. Or there was no choice?

- I always had a plan to get an education in America and work in Russia, I existed according to this plan. I just needed years to get an opportunity to get an education in New York. I was 17 years old when I moved there, I had to understand what I would study for. For four years I was looking for a place in the sun, then I entered the institute, received an education and arrived back.

-Warm around New York?

- No. I was there six months ago, I have not yet had time to get bored.

-Why did you choose a New York history, and not Russian, which would be easier to shoot?

- I had Russian history in the Portrait at Twilight and will be in my third film. It was important for me to make a story geographically than Russia, I wanted to make a more international story, where the types will be recognizable not only by Russian people, but also by all migrants of the world. I believe that this is not quite a story about emigrants - this is the upper layer. Emigrants symbolize modern people who freely choose a place of residence, the country in which to live, the city in which to live. And New York symbolizes just a large city, a sword city, on which the heroes make large bets.

-How did you shoot in New York? Was it just, the city authorities helped?

Most young people in Europe and Russia dream of studying, working, living, getting to know, fall in love in New York

-I shot low-budget independent cinema in Russia and in New York. In Russia, it is still new. When people hear that cinema is being shot, their eyes are light up, the desire appears, support from completely unexpected places. In America, an independent film industry has existed for more than a dozen years. Accordingly, this is a structure that exists according to certain rules. Of course, they can be broken, take a small camera, take an actor, get up on the street and try to make a movie. If you envy somewhere a policeman, run: run from the metro, run from the street because you do not have permission to shoot. If you are planning to remove legally, you will encounter such a bureaucracy, with so many permits that the budget will be needed. And if your budget is very modest and you want to make a movie legally, it is incredibly difficult. In my script, small roles were spelled out for famous actors who were supposed to play themselves. It turned out that this is impossible, because another resolution is required so that the actors who are in the acting union can act in this picture.

- Have you had American money at all?

- No, it is generally very difficult with American money. I do not know what they exist for, because there are no funds, and the state does not support. For some reason, when the Americans hear the word "Moscow", they include dollar signs in their eyes-and all price tags grow ten times. Like from the Arab Emirates.

- You have a wonderful heroine - a Russian old woman who finds himself in a house for the elderly LGBT, without even knowing where she lives. I know such crazy New York stories, so I will not be surprised that this is a genuine plot, and not the fiction of the screenwriter.

- I myself did not know that such houses exist. I accidentally turned out to be such a house of preferential residence: however, it was in Los Angeles, not in New York, I had to artistically process this fact.

-Your other heroine decides to earn extra money by selling drugs in a sex club in New Jersey. This is also probably not fiction.

- Yes, there is a very limited number of earnings for a new emigrant who still does not have a work permit. I know a lot of stories about emigrants that go along a not quite legal path, just trying to survive. There is a set of ways to survive illegal emigrants, and they are all on the screen in this story.

- America in Russian cinema - we recall, for example, the film "Brother" is often an incomprehensible, dangerous, hostile country. Your America is gentle, kind, soft ...

-I think that America is unlikely to perceive so aggressively by and large, because most young people in Europe and Russia dream of New York, dream of being there, study, work, live, get acquainted, fall in love in New York. There is a romantic connotation of citizens of different countries. For me, New York is a city of loneliness, because I really missed my friends, but this city did not give me anything bad, so I have no complaints about it.

- I must admit that in Russia, thanks to state policy, anti -Americanism is growing every day. Young people are also subject to him.

- It seems to me that young people are much more advanced in reading the situation than we think. This is precisely the crying of adults, they have an aggressive mood that existed between the two countries, somehow quickly came to life again. Everyone stood in a pose, America stood in a pose, Russia stood in a pose, as if the truce was unnatural, and it is natural to show who has more a spear. This is sad, but, unfortunately, two huge countries ... Probably, antagonism is something natural, otherwise not to explain why people agreed so sharply. It is clear that there is a policy, but why do citizens so sharply agree to this aggression? After all, in America, it is also very anti -Russian mood now.

- I think that 98% of Americans do not think about Russia at all, and in Russia they think about America every second.

-I was in New York, when I went out to smoke from a bar to the street, the guards caught, learning that I was Russian, drivers of parked limousines, even they asked what I was thinking about Putin’s policy. In America, politics is greatly discussed, and Russians automatically are responsible for all political decisions, which is sad.

“And what did you answer these curious drivers?”

- It was a year ago. I said that everything was getting better. But it was a year ago.

- What would they say today?

- That I do not know anything and do not understand and that I am scared.

- You have an atypical hero for Russian cinema - a transgender, and you draw him with great sympathy. Is this a person from your environment or an invented character?

The terrible thing is that these homophobic laws speak with enormous force among the inhabitants of the country

- The character invented. I know such people. All invented things should have roots in real life, otherwise it will be a fantastic film. It seems to me that direct associations, recognizable characters are needed. I wanted to make a film about people who have their own dream, and about the conflict of man and his dreams, internal and external. And a man who wants to be a woman, of course, is a very bright symbol of this conflict. Because it seems to be internal, but outwardly it is amazing to look at it.

- He became a symbol of the anti -Western campaign. Because her new round began with homophobia. Homophobia has become part of state policy. What do you feel about it?

“I think it's terrible.” But it’s not even terrible that some kind of political prohibitions and laws have been built, it is terrible that these homophobic laws respond with enormous force among the inhabitants of the country . If millions of Russians would not have agreed with this law, it would be easier to treat it. Unfortunately, there is fear, aggression on this topic, suddenly everyone spoke. They showed a bearded singer at Eurovision, everyone had a seizure with epilepsy. I don’t understand this phenomenon, why does this topic so excite the Russians? If you do not agree internally with something, turn away, do not look in that direction. Nobody sits on your head, go the other way. With foam at the mouth for weeks to resent about this topic - why?

- The representative of the stranger is very easy to direct aggression, if you do it with such skillful propaganda as it is done now.

- Don't know. I generally do not believe in propaganda as such.

- I think that there is the fault of the cultural community. When the Mizulin laws were adopted, Western stars, Western politicians, Western human rights activists opposed them, but there was not a single serious appeal from Russian filmmakers, writers, artists. It seems to me that there is a responsibility and bohemia, which was frightened of incomprehensible what.

- I do not believe in letters, appeals. It seems to me that this is the exploitation of the topic, the situation to sound once again. I still use my profession, use a movie language, cinema historians to comment on what I do not agree with. Therefore, I hope you will soon see my third film.

- Welkome Home appeared at the very moment when the law on the prohibition of non -normative vocabulary came into effect. In your film, non -normative vocabulary is English -speaking. Are you not going to tap "faki"?

All filmmakers are now in shock. Maybe to shoot aliens in an invented language?

- With the translation of English obscene expressions is easier. We will now come to this creatively, that is, we can choose a literary equivalent that will be censored and transmitted by the atmosphere: of course, not completely, but at least partially. But there are Russian expressions in the picture, some are written on the glass ... What to do with it, I still did not understand.

- What do you think about this prohibition?

- All of us, filmmakers, are now in shock, just in shock. I don’t know where to go - maybe to shoot aliens in an invented language? Children's films can be tried to do, about animals. A very limited number of topics on which you can now turn around. Because if you make a life movie, you can’t throw words from a song. A cut movie is so strange. I hope that cultural leaders will look at what is happening, for a year or two, maybe they themselves will not like it themselves, some reasonable delights will be applied. Because, it seems to me, this is a path to nowhere.

- There are people who are ready to resist, and there are directors who are ready to make any concessions, just to get state funding: to be tuned and changing scenarios, even to relieve individual scenes. Which camp do you belong to?

- I do not like to shoot freshly, I don't like to watch freshly. Most likely, we will talk about shooting freshly. I am not interested in it. Where I will come with my cinema, full of passions and full of smells of life, where it will be shown, I do not know. Just remove and show relatives? So I'm not interested either. How can we reach the viewer with a real movie in Russia, I do not know.

- Does this picture have a rental certificate?

- It was the last car of the outgoing train when we received a rental certificate. But we attacked, of course.

- Caught for Russian rental?

-Now we will come to the question more creatively, just translate differently, but we will have to insert a couple of peaks. What to do? You can not shift and show the film if a person is ready for it. I'm not ready, I want to show the picture.

“I assume that you really appreciate the cinema of Otar Ioseliani, because the parallels between your film and its sad comedies are noticeable.”

- Thank you. This is a big compliment, to be honest. I am glad of this parallel, I hope this is true. I wanted to make a picture focused on a wide viewer, but thin. The picture is fun, but with meaning, it may not be with one, but with several. And so that at the end there was a cheerful chip note.

- And how do Russian viewers react?

- The Russian premiere was at the Kinotavr in Sochi. There were also amazing reactions. But, unfortunately, it was categorized as American cinema, it was not taken as Russian, which upset me strongly. I believe that cinema can be shot anywhere, in any languages, but if the Russian director is making a film, then, probably, you can still consider it Russian. I insist that Russian cinema should be different and may be different. I have the feeling that they always want to shove me somewhere with elbows, continuing to say that I live in America, calling my movie American. This is discomfort.