“It’s not normal to drink on the Cote d’Azur when cities are being destroyed”

Why did you decide to make a film about the show business of the nineties?

— The country has become stuffy in the last few years. And I wanted to shoot a story about a time when it was easier to breathe - about those same “damned nineties”. Until the USSR collapsed, everyone sat still, afraid to say a word, to utter a sound. In order to somehow be involved in civilization, it was necessary to get out of the USSR: people left by any possible means. And suddenly civilization came. All of a sudden, everything opened up. It was about this time, when freedom rushed into the territory where it had not been for 70 years, and the free world came into the house, I wanted to make a film.

The film will be released during the war. Is it important now to recall the freedom of the 1990s?

- You see, there was no separate freedom of the 1990s, but there was a new feeling. Freedom is the way the human race exists, without it it will end. It is clear that there is North Korea or Iran, where freedom is completely or partially absent, but those around them look at these countries and, in horror, seek to equip their own freedom. Here only in our territory with this there was a certain failure.

Some of the actors who took part in the film supported the war - Garik Sukachev, for example. Did you have problems working with them because of their position?

We haven't discussed this topic. In principle, it is hard for me to criticize someone who stays in Russia and makes some statements. And then, if the artist is famous, he is not necessarily wise. In a person, firstly, wisdom can be a little absent, temporarily or permanently. Secondly, man is weak. Perhaps there were some circumstances that forced Garik to do this. Although, frankly, it is strange when rock and roll suddenly turns out to be on the side of the war.

Maybe Garik realized that with a different reaction, he would have sluggish problems, turning into serious ones. Life in captivity is a peculiar occupation. You have to get used to it, which causes very strange "twists".

What is the current state of your colleagues in the film industry? A lot of people are talking about censorship in movies and streaming.

“I’m not counting the clinical idiots who believe in flat earth and 5G towers that disperse the virus. All sane people understand everything. It’s just that some people think that they will now get a little frostbite, receive state money, and then, when everything is over, they will hug, apologize to each other and say: “It happened, we will live on.” The people have not yet forgotten the Soviet conformity, when you think one thing, do the second, say the third, and the habit has returned.

But it would be interesting to talk to one or two of these people, because I don't quite understand what's going on in their heads. And in the course of the lies, it will be possible to understand in what place they are threatened with a heated soldering iron.

In addition, the film industry in Russia has developed a gigantic dependence on public, budget money and bosses with asses instead of heads. And this has been going on for a long time.

Now many European politicians are saying that they need to stop issuing visas to Russians, and some are even saying that everyone should be returned to Russia. How do you feel about such initiatives?

- As far as I understand, this is a reaction to the fact that society in Russia gives the impression of contented, well-fed and indifferent conformists: for example, Russians travel to resorts, where they drink to the victory of Russian weapons and get everyone. True, they got everyone before, but now they continue to do it against the backdrop of hell in Ukraine. It is clear that the Europeans are annoyed. If Europe bans the issuance of visas, then this will simply be a response to the request of many people - so that the Russians understand that it is not quite normal to drink or rejoice and sing "Katyusha" on the Cote d'Azur, when cities are destroyed and thousands of people die, when millions of people are left homeless . They need to be brought to consciousness somehow.

No one will forbid them to go to other countries - to the Emirates, the same ones that now accept conformists with pleasure.

What do you think cinema should look like after the war? That is, should it exist at all, and if so, what kind?

- Cinema in principle is not very divorced from what is happening. The whole world should be different after the war. First, the possibility of repeating such things should be completely excluded. This is precisely achieved by the fact that the perpetrators are exponentially punished. And, obviously, society will reflect all this, including with the help of cinema. Secondly, these militarisms, conformisms and so on will need to be condemned. Cinema, of course, owes nothing to anyone, but now such a gigantic nightmare is happening that the reflection of all this will be inevitable, as after the Second World War.

There is a scene in your film DMB when recruits come into a room with a nuclear missile control panel and they have a dialogue with an officer: “Maybe we’ll bang?” “We’ll definitely bang, but later.”

Yes, but later.

In the film, this scene looks a little foreign, it is so strange. What did you want to tell her?

- The same thing that Hasek had in Schweik. At the present time, the actual thought is that the buttons should be kept away from inadequate ensigns and conscripts.

When there were reports that the Russian army in Ukraine was being poorly fed, poorly treated, almost unpaid, were you surprised?

- It is clear that the army is just as ruined as science, and sports, and everything else. If some low-skilled people, instead of being engaged in management, were engaged in theft for 20 years, everything will fall into decay. I was surprised not by the fact that they were sleeping on the ground - there was nothing for the soldiers to lie on - but by the extent to which you have to be insane in order to start all this against the backdrop of your own theft.

About that scene with the rocket men. And what do you think, if now the officer was asked: “Let's bang?” - would he bang?

- It strongly depends on the fullness of the glass and the expiration date of the tablets. Let's hope they bring good pills.