A RUSSIAN YOUTH
The First World War was a tragedy that triggered a series of severe tests for the Russian people: revolution, civil war, famine, political repression, the Second World War. And all this impacted on one generation. How did they find the courage and patience to survive all the upheavals of the 20th century? What was their character like? What were they thinking and feeling? The authors of the film A Russian Youth explored exactly these questions.
The film tells the story of a simple village boy who goes to the front of the First World War with a naive juvenile dream of acquiring fame and medals. In the first battle, he loses his sight. He is left to serve as a listener — he must listen carefully through huge metal funnels and raise an alarm when enemy airplanes are approaching.
Back then, the Russian Empire army was mainly formed by peasants and the working class — people whose appearances showed that they lived a life of hard labor. Many non-professional actors in the film were found on the streets, in factories, among the cadets of military schools...
The film features music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, who created the Piano Concerto No. 3 (Op. 30) in 1909. With the power and energy of this piece, the composer predicted the incoming upheavals of the 20th century. Rachmaninoff’s premonition about the fate of the people can be heard in the lyrical shrill melody. Three decades later, at the beginning of the Second World War, Rachmaninoff creates Symphonic dances (Op. 45), an even more grand and vigorous work. After which he no longer created anything…
- Berlinale International Film Festival, Forum (World Premiere), 2019
- Le Festival du film russe de Paris, 2019
The screenplay I’ve found pictures of giant machines on the Internet and wondered what they were, then I started to work through the issue. The screenplay writing process is not that simple: you don’t sit and think about what to write. There are separate themes, images, even dialogues that are spinning in one’s head, and then suddenly they merge into some- thing altogether.
I wrote the first draft on the third year of my studies. Since then, it was constantly refined — Sokurov gave me advice on the literature to read and the artists whose works I should see in order to understand the omens and characters of that time. The characters’ speech is also important. It’s not reconstructed word for word, but the intonation, the accent and certain words that create flavor are preserved.
The story There are several topics that are intertwined in the picture. On one hand, I was interested in the First World War as the trigger that led to the tragedies of the 20th century in the country’s history. On other hand, the issues about people who had to endure revolu- tions, Civil war, repressions and the Great War. We must look at the beginning in order to un- derstand it. In addition, the movie gives the perspective of how the war being the most dis- gusting, terrible and ugly phenomenon — gives one the opportunity to show attractive qualities: brotherly feelings for each other to describe the circumstances in which feelings are born, how they grow and what they lead to.
Casting We were looking for the main character for a very long time. If you take a look at the photos of that period you will see that people were different. Their way of life, hunger, hard work, even the fact that in the evenings they didn’t live in bright light, but with a torch — all this left an imprint on one’s body shape, muscular system and the face. Modern chil- dren, especially in large cities, are well-fed: they play games with their gadgets, their parents take them to school. This is all evident in the nuances. We needed a man with a sense of destiny behind — a boy with a meaningful adult sight. In this story he’s kind, gentle and naive. It was important that he reached out to people, was sincere and open. Everything came together in Volodya Korolev, whom we found in St.Petersburg.
The plot of the film is constructed like a mosaic — there is a gallery of characters with whom the protagonist interacts. Therefore, other participants were selected carefully: we searched at the factories and in military schools, where people are far from modern day of hectic atmosphere. Certainly some professional actors also participating in the movie.
