MOSCOW, June 15, Roman Kharrasov. The fantastic film «Through Time» was released. It was filmed in English and has already been sold to dozens of countries around the world. Alexander Boguslavsky, director of the project, spoke about the creation of the film, the budget for special effects and working with a foreign language in an exclusive interview. 
Deep Meanings and Special Effects: What is Through Time about
— What is your movie about? What meanings did you put in as a director?
— Everything is very simple. First, we must appreciate the time in which we live. Second, we do not choose the time in which we live. And of course, the most important thing that is timeless is family, friends and love. Not ambitions and accomplishments, not something material.
— These are eternal values. But you made a fantasy. How to put global meanings into cinema, where the main thing is the picture, special effects?
We are still telling a human story. Fantasy is just an entourage. In any spectator film, an idea is laid. Sometimes fantasy helps to reveal it. This genre exaggerates many moments: you can see people's passions and vices «under a magnifying glass». 626″ data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»255″ data-source-sid=»» class=»lazyload» lazy=»1″ />
— How did you find the script?
— We were inspired by the story of the Strugatsky brothers «The Forgotten Experiment» about the time engine, which was found by some expedition. They wrote the script for a long time — almost four years. Authors have changed. At some point, they even started preparing for filming, but realized that they needed to redo it. It is very difficult to work with the theme of time. As a result, they took off another draft. Sergey Kaluzhanov put together all our thoughts and achievements.
Difficulties of language: how Russian actors worked in English
— The film was shot in Russian and English. Was there any difficulty with the selection of actors?
— I do not conduct large-scale castings and tests, I try to immediately select suitable artists. He invited Victor Dobronravov and Yegor Koreshkov, because we have been friends for a long time. I didn't know Andrey Zhigalov, but I know about him from his early work.
Sophia Priss was quickly approved via Zoom.
We were looking for actors for the roles of Ryan and Eva Adams for a long time. As a result, they found Daniel Barnes and Valeria Shkirando.
— Actually, why in English?
— We sell the film to different countries. It's easier if it's in English.
— What difficulties arise when actors who speak English are played? not their native language?
— When an actor doesn't know the language, he thinks about the text, not about the frame. But in our case, everyone speaks English.
And of course, you can’t change something drastically on the site, because you are strongly attached to the script, because each phrase must be authentic — correct. 7005975685″ data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»253″ data-source-sid=»» class=»lazyload» lazy=»1″ />
Worldwide distribution: no cancellation of Russian projects
— Where exactly will the film be shown?
— Almost all over the world: in Europe, and in Asia, and in South America, and in the USA. In some countries there are certain restrictions on the nature of the scenes — the approval process takes longer there, for example, in China.
— That is, there is no cancellation of Russian projects, which everyone is talking about, in the West?
— The West bought it — and China too! And everything will be fine.
Specific Genre: Russian Science Fiction Work
— Why were you interested in science fiction? This is not your first film shot in this genre.
—It's always interesting — you create your own world without being tied to everyday life.
Probably, they already perceive me as a director of this genre only. But I enjoyed shooting both comedies and detective stories with great pleasure.
I am convinced that I will get out of this fantastic jet.
— You are one of the few directors in Russia who even takes up this genre. Do you feel almost unique?
— No, rather one of the few. This is a very complex genre, and it is not so much in demand in our country, especially Russian science fiction: it is always treated with caution. Our audience prefers comedies, sports biopics.
But at the same time we have Timur Bekmambetov, Yegor Baranov, Fyodor Bondarchuk.
— Is it easy to find funds for such a movie?
— Fiction is expensive. If the film does not pay off, then it becomes more difficult for the next creators to find money for such a movie. It all depends on the situation and time.
— You've done a lot of work on special effects and CG. Did everything succeed, is everything in the country?
—This industry is well developed in Russia. There are very cool professionals. The graphics are world-class, the guys have international experience, including in Hollywood.
All the technical things that we used on the site are also available. These are cranes for cameras, copters. Our technical capabilities are not inferior, the only question is budgets.
— In terms of time: how long does location shooting and in the pavilion take, how much is post-production?
— We shot for about 2.5 months, and work on graphics began at the stage of preparation for the project, and then in post-production — another six months. And it's still fast. 
— Already working on a new movie?
— Thinking about the Forgotten Gods project, also fantastic. A movie about alien intelligence. Always a hot topic.
Elite or intelligentsia: who Alexander Boguslavsky considers himself to be
— Konstantin Bogomolov wrote an article «Dietary grief» about the elite. Do you consider yourself one of them?
— No! It's too pretentious and self-confident. Intelligentsia — probably, yes. I am from a cinematic family, my father has an Oscar as the director of the film «Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears». I grew up next to Stanislav Govorukhin, Lev Leshchenko, Vladimir Vinokur.
— People often talk about people like you: they say that all roads were open to him from birth…
— It is very easy to explain why this is not so. Listen, it was not so difficult to enter VGIK. I went to the production department, there was no competition at all. That's how it happened. Then he switched to directing.
Next, we work with a multi-million dollar budget. Nobody will trust him to a person just because he comes from a famous family! These are too big risks.
In addition, we know many examples when the children of great parents did not achieve anything in life, and vice versa — people from the outback became meters. data-title='In the shadow of «Harry Potter»: what prevents the screening of children's books in Russia'>