RUSSIA
MUKHA – THE FLY
2008 – 35mm – colore - 107’
Direction: Vladimir Kott
Screenplay: Vladimir Kott
Cinematography: Yevgeny Privin
Editing: Olga Grinshpun, Valery Myznikov
Music: Anton Silayev
Cast: Alexei Kravchenko, Alexandra Tyuftey, Sergei Selin, Yevgeniya Dobrovolskaya, Alexander Golubkov, Konstantin Poyarkin, Olga Lapshina
Producer: Yevgeny Gindilis
Production: TVINDIE in association with NTV Television company, www.muhafilm.ru TVINDIE Film Production
SYNOPSIS
Mukha is the nickname of Vera Mukhina, a 16-year old schoolgirl from a small Russian town. She has lived alone since her mother died, taken up boxing and never asked anyone for help. She is not the one to forgive other people’s mistakes. One day a man comes into her life and tells her he is her father. Fyodor Mukhin, truck-driver, opens the door with his own key, leaves his toothbrush in the bathroom and starts living in her house. So her father did not get burnt alive in a tank, as Mum used to tell. He just failed to show up before. It’s enough for Mukha to declare war on him.
THE DIRECTOR: VLADIMIR KOTT
Vladimir Kott was born in 1973. He graduated from the Director’s Faculty of GITIS (State Theatre Institute) in 1996. From 1996 to 2000 he worked as a theatre director in a number of regional theatres in Tver, Novgorod and other cities. In 1999 worked as Assistant Director for the film Yekhali dva shofyora /Two Drivers (dir. by Alexander Kott). In 2004 graduated from the Director’s Faculty of Graduate School of Scriptwriters and Film directors (Master Vladimir Khotinenko). His graduation project Dver’/The Door (19 minutes) won numerous awards at international and Russian festivals. Mukha is his first full-length feature film which follows a number of successful TV productions.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
This story, as I see it, is about the present day generation of thirty-year-olds. They are infantile grown-ups, hardly responsible for anything. My story is about a person who feels free, but in fact is completely bound. He chose himself an occupation that seems to provide the ultimate degree of freedom, but in fact is just a way to escape real life. He pretends not to love anybody, but in truth he simply doesn’t want to love. He postponed his life, as if saying: first I should finish school, then serve in the army, then complete my studies, get a job, make some money, and then … This is actually the most important question: what happens then?
FILMOGRAPHY
2004 – Dver’/The Door (graduation film, 19 min)
2006 – Serebryanyj Samuraj. Oranienbaum /The Silver Samurai. Oranienbaum (TV, 2 parts)
2008 – Mukha (full-length feature film)
2009 – Gromozeka (full-length feature film) – in production
PREMI/ AWARDS
Shanghai International Film Festival: Best Film award, Alexandra Tyuftey – special mention of the jury
Cottbus Film Festival – Students’ Jury: award for Best Debut
International Debut Film Festival “Spirit of Fire”: 3d prize “Bronze Taiga”
IFF “Black Nights” in Tallinn: Best Actress Award to Alexandra Tyuftey
Zlin IFF for Children and Youth: International Expert Jury for European Debuts Special Prize
IFF for Children and Youth in Artek: Best Film; Best Actress Award to Alexandra Tyuftey
