“I invented everything! And I hope that I have the right to this in our country "

Director Alexei Krasovsky - about his comedy "Holiday", the action of which takes place in the blockade Leningrad

On October 12, some media outlets published the news that director Alexei Krasovsky, who shot the film “Collector” with Konstantin Khabensky, is working on a new picture - a black comedy about the blockade Leningrad “Holiday”. The money for it was collected using crowdfunding ( the fee on the Planeta.ru website closed on September 22). After that, the director on the phone and messengers began to receive threats from strangers; radio host Sergei Stillavin wrote a post on Facebook, in which he claimed that the authors of the film “Stuff on the Holy Topic”; The State Duma deputy (and the son of Mikhail Boyarsky) Sergey Boyarsky called the picture blasphemy and promised to “do everything” so that it would not be removed. Sasha Sulim discussed the special corner of Medusa with Alexei Krasovsky, which was actually his film - and what they joke about - and also where the money came from and why the director did not please the Russian authorities.

- What is your film about?

- This is a story about how a privileged family living in a special position meets the new 1942 year. On the holiday to the scientist, his wife and two adult children, two strangers come. And it begins ... Sorry, comedy. Because first, the owners have to hide their well -being, and then conclude a certain agreement with the guests. In general, there are standard ups and downs for comedy.

- Is the scene of this comedy the blockade Leningrad?

- We do not say where exactly everything happens, but we mean that these are the surroundings of Leningrad. According to the plot, the main characters are hidden from other people, because the father of the family performs an important government task and their place of residence is a great secret.

- What are the comedic elements of your film? What are you laughing at?

-Comicing arises due to a conflict of interests. Very rich people pretend that they are very poor, and they lie a lot. Parallels with modern deputies and officials are probably clear. This, it seems to me, explains why they now want to prohibit us so actively.

Talking about the film, I always emphasize that this is a comedy, and in places it is really black, but more often it is still bright. If you remove from my phrase “places” and “more often bright”, it turns out that we are talking about black comedy. But this is not true. Now - after the filming - I can’t even remember whether the elements of black humor remained in the film.

- In the understanding of many people, “Black Comedy” about the blocked Leningrad is a film in which one person eats another and laughs at the same time. Are there any comic points related to the blockade itself in your film?

- The horror of the blockade in the film, of course, is discussed, but in no way ridiculed. The conflict in the picture is rather domestic. We have another character who, however, does not appear in the frame, is a grandmother living on the second floor. Throughout the film, she sticks out some of her requests to her relatives: either she needs to drink, then take out the garbage, then close or open the window. Heroes who do not really love this grandmother are forced to run upstairs to the fact that she was the hero of the October Revolution. She is the irritant that can exist in our time and during the blockade.

- That is, we are talking about the comedy of the provisions placed in the conditions of the Great Patriotic War?

- That's right.

- Why did you need to consider these comic circumstances precisely under such a prism?

- When the abyss opened around our picture, I suddenly saw how persistently those in power were trying to prove that there were no privileges and benefits at that time.

I wanted to talk about how this disunity was formed between the rich - and undeservedly and unjustifiably rich - and everyone else. When did it start? It seemed to me that the answer is in this zone - when the border was as painful as possible. These people did not feel her and continued to live happily, as if nothing was happening. They were, they are, and, I'm afraid they will always be.

-Are you based on some historical documents?

- Of course, I read books and documents about it. There is a book “Blockery Ethics. The ideas about morality in Leningrad in 1941–1942 ”, which I recommend to read to everyone, there are many documentaries on this topic. My film is artistic, you can hardly find the same scientist who is the same with the same surname. I invented everything! And I hope that I have the right to this in our country. Otherwise, let's speak frankly that there is censorship in the country and we are forbidden to speak on some topics and shoot a movie on them.

Even in the Museum of the Blockade, where I turned, they told me about the same wagons with food that Zhdanov came and which, of course, could not distribute to everyone. I was told about special talones and special falls, that a large number of these documents lies in the archives and have no right to exhibit them.

- At what stage is the picture now?

- I am mounting it now, I hope to finish it in the last days, work with sound, music, color will go further. We will solve the issue of rental, this distributor will decide whether he will be and what he will be. With the "collector" I also did not hope that there would be some rental. Then it was believed that we have a collector’s profession and in no case we should not appear anywhere. But we went to the cinemas, and kept there for a long time. How will happen now, I don't know.

I am going to show the film not in Chernovaya, but already in the finished form, and together we will determine the dates.

- Will you show the same distributor that you produced the “collector” (WDSSPR film Distriber)?

- Let's start with the same, and then we will see.

- Why did such a wave of negativity rise against your film? Who was the initiator?

- My colleagues have already begun to investigate this. Who has become a trigger, I don't know. Perhaps he will be found in the near future. Maybe this is a few people, but the “bomb” and my phone exploded almost simultaneously, on October 12 at about 12 pm - then calls and threats began to come to me.

- How did they learn about your film?

- The news came out with a large number of mistakes and errors ( in which media, Krasovsky, according to him, does not remember; one of the first news about the film was released by the FAN agency, which is associated with businessman Evgeny Prigozhin - approx. Medusa ). It was written that I was collecting money for shooting - although the film has already been shot; Also in the article they called to forbid me to remove it, and the article included quotes of deputies who also said that they would not allow us to remove this picture. Here they are a little late.

- Why right now this wave has risen?

-In order to reduce interest in really important topics that really concern all Russian citizens, such as pension reform. How to distract attention from her? It is necessary to redirect popular anger to something else: for example, to the crazy football players who have fought , or on a crazy director who dared to make a film about the blockade in that genre. Apparently, all this will last another week. And then someone next will appear.

“Do you think you fell under a hot hand for someone?”

- I - like many - know that there is a simple scenario that consists in the fact that several stimuli or scapegoats should be in every area: in culture, in sports, among officials. So that it could be said that there is a fight against abnormal people, that everything is fine, we will defeat them all - most importantly, do not worry about real problems.

-That is, this is not something personal? In your opinion, they were not interested in Alexey Krasovsky, but a director who shot a comedy about the blockade?

-And also the director-liberal and impudent, which often allows itself to be superfluous. Apparently, they decided at the same time for all my other statements to win back.

- And what are these statements?

- The first was after the action on March 26, when I, together with other people, went to a rally dedicated to our wonderful Dimon, after which more than one and a half thousand people were detained. I was invited to the Nick Award ceremony, and in my speech , speaking of the detainees, I held an analogy with the hall in which about 750 people were sitting. Then many said that I ruined the holiday for people.

Perhaps today someone will say that it is blasphemous to draw a parallel between the starving Oleg Sentsov and the Blockade City, but I will still spend it. After all, Sentsov was not for himself personally, but for freedom and for the truth. In order for our state to say that we have political persecution.

- Do you regularly make such political speeches?

- Yes, sure. I use any public opportunity to turn to still indifferent people. I did this on the Kinotavr when I received prizes for the "collector". I then said that I perceive this award as a prize of independent cinema, and wished that no more independent paintings, but also independent television and press appeared in our country.

- Who helped you make your second independent film?

- First of all, I helped myself. In the second, I was helped out by the operator Sergei Astakhov, who agreed to shoot without a fee, provided all the necessary equipment and closed the entire operator workshop. I paid the fees of all the others from my own pocket. Given that the action takes place in the same house, and only six actors, this is not the most expensive project.

- How much money did you spend?

- 3.5 million rubles.

- They said that the film was shot, including with the money of one of the actors of the film - Pavel Tabakov. Is this not true?

- This is true partly. [Actress] Marina Zudina ( mother Pavel Tabakova - approx. Medusa ) transferred us a certain amount through the site Planeta.ru - from the account of her husband Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov. I thanked her for this. This amount is included in 127 thousand rubles, which were collected on the planet. I received them just recently, they will go to post -production: for display, work with color and so on.

- You starred in Alena Babenko, Jan Tsapnik, Timofei Tribune. How did they react to the script?

- None of those to whom I showed the script was not embarrassed by the material. If the script lay in the public domain, everyone could make sure that there was nothing offensive, humiliating or infringing on human dignity in it.

- Do you understand why the usual people not related to cinema have caught a wave of negativity so vividly? Were you ready for this?

- Of course, it was. Otherwise, I would not have started all this with such persistence. It was annoying that producers were not ready for this. This is my fifth attempt to launch a picture: in four other producers either changed their minds or hid a month before the filming, letting me down and the rest of the group.

In Russia and the Soviet Union, comedy films about the war were shot: “Two comrades served”, “Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha”, “Bumbarash” - then the combination of these words did not outraged. And this has become our cinematiclassic, which now does not cause any controversy.

I think that the story of privileges and benefits is this shameful page in our history - of course, annoying people who use these benefits so far.

- Where do you draw the border between what you can laugh at, and what is no longer possible at?

- I think that everyone can laugh at everything. Moreover, artists and creators. We play in our sandbox, sculpt kuliki, and when other people outraged that we sculpt the Easter cakes of the wrong forms, it always surprises me. We do not reduce pensions to people, it is not because of us that rockets do not take off.

I do not believe that there are topics that you can’t laugh at, another question is how talented it is done. This already remains on the conscience of the one who is trying to laugh. For me, there are no forbidden topics, I am against censorship in any form.

Sasha Sulim