SKAZKA

Credits

cast

Maxim Kulkov

Director
03/09/1974

Biography

Maxim was born in 1974 in Tatarstan, in the Volga region. He was raised by oil and energy engineers in the far north of Russia in the Yamalo Nenets region (Syberia). This place is known for its stunning landscapes, tundra, lakes, rivers, hunting, fishing and large population of reindeers, but also for being the territory where most of Russia’s gas and oil reserves are exploited and were most of Russia’s environmental catastrophes occur. He graduated in 1997 from the Law Faculty of Moscow State University. In 2002–2003, he studied at Nottingham Law School, UK. In 2015, he founded his own law firm focused on high profile international energy disputes, in which he usually ends up against major Russian companies that are close to the Kremlin. A recent case found him defending Ukraine against an unsuccessful attempt by Russian oil giant Tatneft to seize Ukrainian assets in Russia. Despite the busy days and sleepless nights dedicated to law, Maxim spends his free time on his second – or maybe now his first – passion, film. He graduated from the Moscow Film School in 2019 and from the ARKA film school in 2020. His debut experimental short received several awards, both domestically and internationally (Sunday Shorts, Koroche and more). This recognition gave him the confidence necessary to write and shoot Skazka.

Filmography

2019, Buy Doll’s House, 9 min, 2021, Skazka, 17 min

Directors Statement

Skazka’s story is about this simple truth: in any conflict (whether between states, groups of people, friends or spouses), there is never a point of no return. It is always possible to pause, take a look around, and say “I’m sorry”. The important thing is to take action the moment your heart bids you to do so – just like fairy tale heroes do – without looking back and without hesitation. If you feel it needs doing, do it. That is the only way to save the princess, save the world or, at least, save yourself. I believe that the growth of intolerance is the modern world’s main problem. I spent half my life working as a dispute resolution lawyer and the root cause of almost all the disputes I dealt with was intolerance. Filming required a fairy tale-like old cottage standing alone in a large field. After failing to find anything suitable around Moscow, we had resolved to construct the set ourselves until we decided to visit the Red Ploughman farmstead in Voronezh Oblast where we found exactly what we needed. I got a lot of criticism for the decision to film 800 km away from Moscow, since it would involve significant expenses, risks and problems, all of which turned out to be true: the lead got sick the day before shooting started; on the first day of filming, the strength of an explosion was miscalculated, which ended up destroying our camera; sunshine had been forecast for the last day but, instead, that day began with heavy rain. However, every problem was miraculously resolved. We found Mikhail Troynik to replace the lead, we managed to persuade the camera rental company to deliver a new camera, and the sun finally came out. That sunshine was the sign that everything was going to be all right!