From Paris to Berlin, Los Angeles to Istanbul, Russian filmmakers who fled after the invasion of Ukraine are slowly rebuilding their industry in exile.
Many are happy just to be out.
“Maybe I won’t be on any more red carpets, but at least I’m
free,” said Mariya Shalaeva, a 42-year-old actress and director who left with
“two children and three suitcases” after being briefly arrested during an
anti-war protest in Moscow.
Now exiled in Paris, Shalaeva worries about finding decent
work again, but refuses to talk about material difficulties which are “nothing
compared to the suffering of Ukrainians”.
She is showing a short film at a mini-festival of Russian
cinema in Paris this week, featuring the last spate of independent films from
before the war.
Things have gone downhill fast for Russian cinema.
Just two years ago, a film like “Captain Volkonogov
Escaped”, which is sharply critical of the Stalinist period, had Russian state
funding and premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
There is “no chance” that would happen today, said its
producer Charles-Evrard Tchekhoff.
Its directors Alexey Chupov and Natalya Merkulova had told
AFP in Venice that they were confident they could keep working in Russia.
Today, they are in exile in Azerbaijan and no longer speak to the press.
‘Managed to survive’
Many of the country’s best filmmakers are in a similar
situation.
Oscar-nominated director Andrey Zvyagintsev (“The Return”,
“Leviathan”) is in Paris.
Two promising young talents, Kira Kovalenko and Kantemir
Balagov, have chosen Los Angeles.
Balagov had planned to set his next film in his native
Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkarian. Now it will be New Jersey, where he
can at least call on a sizable Russian diaspora.
“Historically, Russian culture has always managed to
survive,” said director Kirill Serebrennikov, a renowned theatre and film
director who was targeted by authorities even before the invasion and now lives
in Berlin.
The 53-year-old has shifted his next project from Russia to
Latvia.
“Limonov, the Ballad of Eddie”, starring Ben Whishaw, is the
first big production from the new generation of Russian exiles.
Perhaps fittingly, it will tell the true story of a Soviet
poet “who became a bum in New York, a sensation in France, and a political
antihero in Russia”.
Initially after the invasion, there was pushback against
including Russians in European festivals and other cultural events — some
Ukrainians were outraged that Serebrennikov was selected for Cannes last year.
But “the vindictiveness has subsided,” said film expert Joel
Chapron.
The much-lauded director Alexander Sokurov presented his
latest, “Fairytale”, at the Locarno Film Festival last year, while a Chechen
film, “The Cage is Looking for a Bird”, played at Berlin last month.
AFP
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