Sasha (Maria Viktorova) Russia |

Sasha
Maria Viktorova
Russia. 2023. 24 min

Sasha was absolutely satisfied with his life. He left his city with the goal of never returning there again, but fate had other plans. Once in a compartment with a silent neighbor, Sasha tries to guess her name. Unexpectedly, the conductor invites him to “smoke” in her compartment. Having left the compartment for a short time, Sasha will never return there.

MARIA VIKTOROVA

Born in Leningrad in 1979. I graduated from the Theatre Institute “School of Russian Drama”, and is an actress of the theater “School of Dramatic Art”. In 2021 entered the Danelia Higher Directing Courses in the studio of A.B. Muradov, A.M. Dobrovolsky.

DIRECTOR´S NOTE

The main conflict of the film is the hero and the city, so it was important to find the shape of the city. So that a small town is a living organism absorbing the hero. It was very important for me to catch and show the general style of the city. This is not an unambiguous place, I didn’t want it to be depressing, but at the same time it should have been clear why the hero is so afraid of this place. Such a terribly beautiful and at the same time light-ironic place. I wanted to create a tender movie. We filmed the hospital and the “city of 00” in the village of Mednoye. All the women who were in the frame are local residents who came to the ad. I like to work with non-professional actors, during the filming we spent a lot of time on mass scenes because they were the main conflict. In my work with actors, I adhere to the principle-“do no harm.” During filming, I try to give the actor maximum freedom to improvise. I’m an actress and I know how hard it is when a director asks you to do something that you don’t like. . My belief is that the whole process on the set should be to make the actor feel good and comfortable, for the maximum embodiment of the image.