Irina Semyonova. I tried for a long time to buy a tape or download your movie "Railway" on the Internet, but I couldn't do it. I haven't met him at the box office either. Why?

Alexey Fedorchenko. Russian films are not being released. No money for advertising. You need to invest more money in advertising than in production. TV stopped buying because of the crisis. Especially non-format movies. Or prices have fallen five to ten times. If Gordon stays on Channel One, then art-house movies can still be seen.

I. Semenova. Do you mean his "Private Screening" program?

A. Fedorchenko. Yes, of course. After TV, you will be able to sell cassettes.

I. Semenova. You've been to many countries. Where did you like it the most?

A. Fedorchenko. I didn't like it in Florida.

I. Semenova. Why?

A. Fedorchenko. There are very ugly people in Florida.

I. Semenova. But maybe they're kind.

A. Fedorchenko. Maybe... There are many beautiful people in New York. And lungs...

I. Semenova. And where else?

A. Fedorchenko. In Israel, Indonesia, Poland, and the Philippines... in many countries. I didn't like it in Vienna, in Paris...

I. Semenova. Why?

A. Fedorchenko. I don't know, I was surprised myself.

I. Semenova. Often, when an artist or director wins a prize at a prestigious festival, they move to Europe or Moscow, and you still live in Yekaterinburg after the success in Venice. Would you like to move to Moscow or some other city center?

A. Fedorchenko. Probably not. I'm a stay-at-home mom. Moscow is not my city at all, it's too big.

I. Semenova. How did you manage to become a film director? Your parents are doctors, decent intelligent people. Exalted girls from the working-class suburbs dream of cinema. And you graduated from a mathematical school, a technical institute. What's the matter?

A. Fedorchenko. I went to the movies out of laziness. After the institute, I worked on distribution in NPO Avtomatik. There you had to get up at six o'clock every day and be at work at eight sharp. There was a clock at the entrance to the NGO, and at exactly eight o'clock, a special automatic machine registered all latecomers for one second. In 1989, computers were introduced. I offered my superiors a complete computerization of my activities. I was released for this.

I. Semenova. Have you been replaced by a computer?

A. Fedorchenko. Well no. Then they took four people instead of me.

I. Semenova. At the film studio in those days, probably, the salary was higher?

A. Fedorchenko. Well no. The NGO had a salary of 280 rubles, and the film studio had a salary of 130 rubles. For me, then, work was more of a hobby. I made money in a completely different way. I was an entrepreneur, sold chocolate, and had a monopoly on processed cheese. Maybe I would have stayed in the business if it wasn't so life-threatening. In 1993, a new director, Georgy Negashev, came to the Sverdlovsk Film Studio. I wanted to work with him. I thought it was interesting. Back when I was a student in the Komsomol committee, I was engaged in cultural work under the guidance of Valentina Mikhailovna Evseeva. I don't remember what she taught at UPI. But of those who were then engaged in cultural work and amateur activities under her leadership, many later went into culture. Someone is currently working in the theater.

I started reading early. And I read a lot, like my daughter does now. She reads one book a day.

I. Semenova. How old is your daughter?

A. Fedorchenko. Seven. So, in school, I read eighteen volumes of Chekhov. Very fond of Bunin, Remarque, Kuprin, Gogol, of course. Later I fell in love with Platonov, the Japanese, especially haiku. Now I like to read the memoirs of Kataev, Olesha, Zoshchenko, Sofya Fedorchenko.

I. Semenova. Fedorchenko?

A. Fedorchenko. This is my namesake. I recently discovered the writer Erland Lu. Among my contemporaries, I like Alexey Ivanov, his book "The Geographer drank the Globe away". I am friends and cooperate with Denis Osokin. I don't reread the classics. Probably in vain. In modern poetry, I like minimalism, and in painting - primitivism.

I. Semenova. Do you like Rousseau?

A. Fedorchenko: Well ... this is a great artist. He lived a long time ago and very far away. I am closer to the contemporary Russian artist Ivan Uruyev, there is one. I also like Osokin, who lives on the Volga River in Yuryevets.

I. Semenova. What do you like about movies?

A. Fedorchenko. I love films at the intersection of documentary and feature films. I really liked "Tulip" by Sergey Dvortsevoy, "Free Swimming" by Boris Khlebnikov, "Harvest Time" by Marina Razbezhkina, " You, zhi-

in the dark " by Roy Andersen," Silent Light " by Carlos Reygadas. I follow with great interest the creative work of representatives of the Romanian "new wave". I liked the film "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" by Christie Puyu.

I. Semenova. I understand that the Russian audience will not be able to see anything of the above, even if they want to...

A. Fedorchenko. The films of Christy Puyu and Carlos Reygadas can certainly be purchased on disks. From what I saw in the cinema recently, I liked the most very vulgar and very funny film by American director Larry Charles "Bruno". When we bought tickets, the cashier warned us: "Don't go." Apparently, we seemed to her decent, solid people. The film is really shocking and very vulgar. It is built on provocations, but of a completely different kind, not like the films of other directors who work in this technique. Excellent work of the actor Sacha Baron Cohen.

I. Semenova. What is your favorite movie?

A. Fedorchenko. My favorite movie by Alexey Fedorchenko is "Shosho". This is a documentary fairy tale in the Mari language.

A real magical world, a special style-it is based on the fairy tale "New Shoes"by Denis Osokin. Sorcerers, fortune tellers, gods, aestheticization of reality. Produced by Alsen Hale. "Shosho "means" spring " in Mari. There are three Russian words in the film: snowstorm, mackerel, boots.

I. Semenova. A movie in Mari?

A. Fedorchenko. Yes, in Mari. One day in the life of a Mari village. But everything is clear. The trick is that this is a film about pagan priests (maps). The cards play themselves. This is very interesting, because the film tells about one of the last enclaves of paganism on the territory of our country1.

I. Semenova. Do you think that cinema is a visual art, not a dramatic one, and has cultural significance?

A. Fedorchenko. No. And dramatic, too. And philosophical.

I. Semenova. Both political, journalistic, and social... Do you like Mikhail Romm?

A. Fedorchenko. I prefer Eisenstein. I really like Leni Riefenstahl.

I. Semenova. Do you think genius and villainy are two incompatible things? Was Pushkin right?

A. Fedorchenko. I don't think so. Many geniuses are very unpleasant people. And vice versa...

I. Semenova. What do you intend to do next?

A. Fedorchenko. I will work with Denis Osokin. In the meantime, I'm stuck with Oatmeal.

Yekaterinburg, 2009

¹ Alexey gave me a tape of this film as a gift. The plot is very simple. The main character goes from the village to the district center to buy shoes. The film reminded me of the work of "Mitkov". I don't know the religious rites of the Mari people very well, but everything I saw seemed to me to be another ingenious and witty hoax of Alexey. This gave me aesthetic pleasure, although, of course, I didn't understand a word of it.

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