The Return -- "Russian director wants his prize-winning film..."

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[Oddly, this hasn't opened in Boston.]
Russian director wants his prize-winning film to speak for itself
By Aleksandrs Rozens, Reuters, 2/29/2004
NEW YORK -- Russian film director Andrei Zvyaginstev is a man of mystery, much like his award-winning film "The Return."
Zvyaginstev, in New York recently to promote the movie, which won the Venice Film Festival's top prize in September but was overlooked for a best foreign film Oscar nomination, does not enjoy talking about his work, and the film itself leaves many questions unanswered for audiences.
"It is a deeply emotional story. It is so difficult to speak about your work in these terms and to assess what you do. It is like you're talking about your child who somebody likes and somebody doesn't. I feel a little awkward to speak about it," Zvyaginstev said in an interview.
Besides taking the Golden Lion, "The Return" was named best first film in Venice and was Russia's official entry for best foreign language film for the Academy Awards.
"It is always very rewarding to see all your efforts are not wasted, that everything you put into that -- your ideas, your imagination -- has found a response," he explained through an interpreter.
"The Return," released in US theaters in January, is about the stormy relationship that brothers Vanya and Andrei have with their father, who has returned after an unexplained absence of more than a decade.
While the older brother hopes to learn about his father and tries to bond with him, the younger brother broods about why their father has returned. The three embark on a camping trip, go fishing, and seek out adventure on a remote island, where the father retrieves a wooden box that, like many elements in the film, is a mystery.
Zvyaginstev said the film, striking for its scenery, was shot in the haunting gray Russian light north of St. Petersburg at Lake Ladoga and at the Bay of Finland. But he offers no clues about what's in the box or where the boys' father was during his prolonged absence.
"It is the inevitable question. But I cannot satisfy your curiosity because it is up to you to decide. When you see the whole thing, you understand it is not important," he said.
Before directing "The Return," Zvyaginstev directed commercials and television programs after studying at the Moscow State Theatre School.
He was not always so close-mouthed.
"I wanted to become an actor without having watched movies," he revealed. "One of my friends said, `You should be an actor,' probably because I was acting all the time, telling jokes, imitating somebody. I would imitate friends and musical instruments."
The 39-year-old film director pursed his lips and offered a medley of sound effects he conjured up as a boy in Novosibirsk, Russia: saxophone, bass, and a cross between tuba and trombone.
Zvyaginstev lists Ingmar Bergman as one of his favorite directors and may have paid homage to the Swedish master in the way the young actors playing Andrei and Vanya were brought to life with a bratty defiance and unvarnished youth, much like characters in Bergman's film "Fanny and Alexander."
In keeping with his reticent nature, Zvyaginstev won't say much about what drew him to "The Return" in the first place.
"If I begin to talk about what attracted me to this film, I would have to talk about what is its main idea," he said. "This is something I have chosen not to talk about to anybody. The audience has to have the freedom to understand it themselves. I don't want to impose my opinion about what the film is about."
A fan of actor Al Pacino and director Martin Scorsese, the Moscow resident said he is not sure he is ready to take on Hollywood.
"I know life in Russia. I know all this material I'm working with. I know what I'm dealing with, and I'm a part of it. I don't know how things work, how people live, and what are the realities in this part of the world," he said.
"It is not important where you film. If your film is universal, it is not important."

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Topic - The Return -- "Russian director wants his prize-winning film..." - clarkjohnsen 12:33:53 02/29/04 (1)

No... (nt) - Victor Khomenko 15:01:13 03/08/04 (0)

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