2017 | Fiction | 113 min. | Russia
Two friends, Russian Dmitrii and Armenian Rubik come to Dmitriy's home town in Siberia where he has been absent for a long time. His parents died there while robbing. The genuine goal of his visit - revenge. For this reason, he is determined to call back his shadowy past for the first time in over 15 years. Life makes corrections into Dmitriy's plan in an unexpected way, putting his best friend's life on the line.
Directors Statement
The story, which served as the basis for the scenario, happened in reality and impressed me how simple and at the same time profound it was. Just like water - the clearer it is, the deeper one can see. So the theme of big river was born, on the bank of which there lies a small town where the main scene of the movie unfolds. It tells us whether it is possible for a person to change after he had led a new life for many years, to return for a while to himself, whom he used to be - "to step into the same river twice". I believe that it is a topical issue not only for my country, the being of which in the 1990s was determined not by laws but a "dog-eat-dog" principle. The world is full of people who had a turbulent youth and have a breast hidden inside at the very bottom of their souls - the concentrated essence of their ideology is presented in Rubik's monologue when he is peering at a fish in a glass. Dmitrii's home town represents a collective image of Siberian province. It was compiled from an old industrial district of Novosibirsk and nature on the Ob river shore. The Stalin epoch buildings are demolished - a row of the few buildings still intact by now can be seen in our movie only. Rubik's homeland memories were shot on the Armenia–Azerbaijan border. One miraculously survived wooden landing stage built in 1929 was chosen by me for one of the key scenes. The shooting of the other scene took place in a punishment cell of maximum security penal colony. It is nearly impossible to enter this institution without the court sentence even for a while but we managed to do it - to render the specific oppressiveness that one can almost sense, that was really important for us. It had been a real test for our makeup artist. The girl was getting to the location being accompanied by officers, each time going along the long narrow path between the rows of barbed wire, to which hundreds of prisoners were clinging from the other side - their eyes will remain stamped on her memory for long. In a number of episodes I shot people with criminal history. They can be distinguished by a characteristic prisoner movement, which just cannot be played by actors, by mimics and specific tattoos. They became my advisers - any detail was to be just as it happens in a hidden criminal world. Starting from the words and finishing with that deft sudden movement, with which Dmitrii throws a towel over his victim's neck. The task I set for myself was to portray this world without slightest touch of romanticism. After the rape scene, the main technical complexity was to reduce the movie to the monochrome. We tried to do it carefully in order to create an illusion of dismal first and to confirm the guess just in the climax - the world is black-white because the main character's reverse rebirth into a beast did happen. My discovery – Zakhar Prilepin as Dmitrii. He is not only a living classic of Russian literature, he is even more remarkable artist. He is organic political figure, exceptionalist TV presenter, outstanding song singer and has a successful experience in cameo appearances. But "Guyler" is his debut as main character. Zakhar confessed that he was captivated by the story so much that if he had heard it before, he would have written a book based on it. I was lucky to learn it first. And if now the world is lucky to discover actor Prilepin – I will consider it my best luck. I let the viewers decide, whether Rubik had lied before his death to lift the weight off his friend's shoulders or said the truth. For me it is important that viewers can answer to themselves - how the main character will act after the confession... And what will be your answer?
Director: Petr Dikarev
Producers: Artur Sogojan, Alena Zvarich and Artyom Orlov
Сast: Artur Sogojan, Aleksei Vertkov, Konstantin Telegin, Kseniia Shagaevskaia, Sergei Puskepalis and Artur Sogojanм
Studio: LLC Production centre "February 1"
