The dystopian novel by Evgeny Zamyatin "We" filmed three times. In 1982, on German television, they showed the eponymous fantastic drama of a Czech director, owner of the three palm branches of the Cannes Film Festival Vojtech Jasna. The tape did not achieve a response from the audience and quickly forgotten. In 2016, the Frenchman Alain Bure attempted to transfer the novel to film - he turned "We" into a low-budget black and white short film titled "Glass Fortress", which is a cutting from staged photo and video frames.
In 2017, it became known that the film based on the Zamyatin novel would be shot in Russia. And already in 2018, during the defense of fiction film projects in the Ministry of Culture, beginner director Hamlet Duljan said that he was already conducting readings with actors: Yegor Koreshkov, Elena Podkaminskaya and Yury Kolokolnikov.
"Because Zamyatin"
26-year-old Hamlet Duljan (in his filmography so far only the short film of the year 2012 entitled Immersion in Fire is listed) dreamed of filming "We" while still a schoolboy. The director told RT that he had been looking for investments for five years and was engaged in the development of the project - until he found the producers, the Big Cinema company. Those supported the idea to make a film based on the novel.
“First of all, because it is Zamyatin, who is the country code and the progenitor of this genre,” said one of the founders of the company, Ghevond Andreasyan.
The main role - the engineer D-503 - was approved by the actor Yegor Koreshkov ("The Eighties", "Psychology").
“This is a unique world in which I wanted to be. And now, almost twenty years later (after reading the novel. - RT ), the director calls me and offers this role, this world. Miracle. This is a very important job for me. I'm still worried: did you do it or not? ”Said Koreshkov.
The company on the set was made up of Elena Podkaminskaya (“Kitchen”, “What Men Talk About”), Philip Yankovsky (“Wonderworker”, “Mysterious Passion”), Yuri Kolokolnikov (“VMayakovsky”, “Method”), Mariana Spivak (“ Dislike "," Epidemic ") and other artists. The scenario was handled by Alexander Talal (“Day Watch”, “Black Lightning”).
- © Film company "Big cinema"
“I needed a scale”
Filming of the tape (a total of 36 days) took place in 2018. The artists spent most of the filming process at Glavkino, the film and television complex on Novorizhskoye Highway. There, surrounded by a green screen for the chroma key, the scenery of the city in which the novel takes place was lined up. There were several changes of field shooting.
“No graphics will replace the natural texture. I wanted everything to be maximally built. We needed a scale, so I told our production designer to build a city. This is a daunting task, and his reaction confirmed that this is the case, ”recalls Dulyan.
The filmmakers emphasize: despite the fact that the scenery was placed on an area of 3 thousand square meters. m, there was not enough space for them. Artists and workers every day after the end of shifts rebuilt the scenery to move the action in a room or in another part of the city. Also, it was necessary to sew around the set-up chrome fabrics for graphics.
When designing architectural structures, artists relied on Soviet constructivism and functionalism - they took these directions as a basis and added futuristic elements to them. The same can be said about the creation of costumes: costume designer Oksana Shevchenko offered sketches for which she was inspired by samples from the Soviet Encyclopedia of Fashion.
“There are many ideas in our history, including artistic ones, which should be referred to. I wanted to add my own, native, and not conditional or western. After all, we are talking about the adaptation of the national classics, ”explains Doulyan.
Production designer David Dadunashvili is confident that the efforts of all those involved were not in vain.
"What the team created in the end - maybe this is what Zamyatin himself would like to see," he stressed.
- © Film company "Big cinema"
Book and screen version
Duljan emphasizes: the main ideas of the Zamyatin novel lie in a more complex plane than the criticism of any political ideologies. So the film based on the book tells about the interaction of man and society, personal and collective. The ribbon raises the problematics of the “little man” - but not the usual one, but the “renewed” one. It also addresses the problems of freedom, happiness, security, choice.
“In our film, each character has his own understanding of the truth, each is right in his own way. For me it was important to honestly convey the truth of all the characters, to enable the viewer to make the choice himself, ”says the director.
According to screenwriter Alexander Talal, there could be some discrepancy between the text of Zamyatin and the adaptation of the novel: a hundred years after writing the book, fiction - including dystopia - was actively developed, the language that told these stories changed. The creators of "We" had to take into account at what point the development of cinema is at the moment and how many similar stories have already found their listeners and viewers.
“We wanted to complicate and sharpen the discourse and conflicts inherent in Zamyatin’s novel. By the way, recently passed a master class on the novel "We." There I heard a number of considerations that confirmed the relevance of some of our ideas. Well, and, perhaps, we took the fantastic elements of the novel and thought: how else can it be used? Is it possible to develop this particular idea and go even further? ”Notes Talal.
Currently, the picture is at the stage of postproduction. It is expected that it will be released in the fall of 2020.