To find out more about the contemporary market for films and Russian productions’ chances in the West, Expert spoke with Dmitri Lesnevsky, General Director of Ren-TV and General Producer at the Ren-Film film company. The Return, which took the Golden Lion at Venice this year, was Lesnevsky’s debut as a producer in the world of big-name cinema.

--The Return’s success at Venice meant that a new generation had finally arrived. No more, but also no less. We are seeing the natural but very difficult process of the older generation giving way to a new one. The new generation of Russian directors is much closer to the Europeans. They are well-adjusted, free thinking people without psychological complexes who aren’t oppressed by stereotypes from the recent past. It seems unlikely we will go back.

--Russia has an amazing film tradition, great cinematographers, and wonderful master filmmakers. So does Europe. In both places, the boundaries are shifting. The West doesn’t expect and won’t accept Russian soul searching. No one is interested in our psychological complexes or in Russia’s special destiny. They are only interested in life, love, and people in and of themselves, the kind of things that always excite viewers everywhere. It doesn’t matter whether we are making small-budget art house films or commercial blockbusters. Anything artificial or estranged won’t make any sense to them. European viewers don’t want to see our endless tales of the mafia and its wars. There are already impressive films about the mafia like The Godfather or Gangs of New York. They are interested in the mafia and gangs in these contexts, but not in the context of contemporary Russia. They also don’t believe those films reflect reality, but think they are the next Russian myths.

--Europeans always welcome Russian films. Today’s Europe is a mass of contradictions and is in constant conflict with the great empire beyond the Atlantic. Europe is slightly impotent in its searching and yet very proud. Europe wants to incorporate Russia organically, not artificially. I think our cinema is anything but exotic for them. They see us as a force that will unite with them in spirit against Hollywood. When we try to promote our films in Europe, we run into a wide-open door. They have been expecting us all along. Our only problem is internal, meaning what we ourselves are doing.

--Certainly. Television has ended up as a provider of sorts and has the luxury of recruiting talent. Television in Russia, whatever you may think of it, is absolutely self-sufficient today. It is a well-established industry that doesn’t survive on government funding and handouts. However, television, due to market conditions, can hardly allow itself the luxury of filming something just for fun. Everything is calculated, what niches and target audiences something will appeal to. It’s wide open and via series, made-for-TV movies, and little experiment, it will bring to light folks like Andrei Zvyagintsev. He’s not the only one of his kind. His film is no accident. The entire jury, despite pressure from the American organizers and the Italian government, unanimously voted to give a Russian film the prize, not because it was Russian, but because it showed talent. And it was filmed by some unknown rookie who used to work in television. Who else would give someone without any education in filmmaking the opportunity to shoot a movie?

--As if that will help. Ren-TV earns more today than the entire state film company Goskino. In principle, state support is a good thing and exists in every European country, but it can’t be the main thing. Otherwise, there won’t be any competition. Film in Russia will only get big and strong when normal managers arrive. People with the right motivation. Our films are absolutely able to compete and turn a profit. You simply cannot get stuck relying on Russian movie theaters. We still have the same Soviet tradition as when our film industry was imposing but closed to the outside world. We need to look to the West and make a decent product. I believe Russian films could become such a product in the near future. I think it’s a matter of seven to ten years. The Americans said they will seriously take on the Russian market once one of their films earns thirty million dollars. Today, the biggest success so far was twelve million. What do they mean by “take on the market”? They mean they will start building cinema chains and buying up everything that already exists. But maybe one of the bigger and more serious companies will begin to work here independently, like Warner Brothers did. First they built a chain of theaters, then made a new film a week for these theaters. Also, a new generation of people who know how to make films has to appear. Maybe the fact that many people were very inspired by our victory in Venice will play a role in this process.

--When I saw the first edit, even without sound, I understood that this film could be promoted around the world, that it was absolutely able to compete. As they were finishing the soundtrack, I got a hold of a distributor, the only company in Russia that knows how to sell films abroad, Intercinema Art. I showed them the film and said, “This will make it big abroad.” They replied that they would only take the film if I didn’t expect any concrete results from my nutty idea. In the end, a crazy brawl broke out among festivals, everyone wanted a piece of the film, and it got great press. First came an Italian company, Lucky Red. When even before the film’s premier the French company Ocean bought the film, everyone wanted it. We could pick and choose. I had one main principle: not to let the Americans have it until after the festival. This was risky because if we hadn’t won anything, we wouldn’t have gotten anything. More likely then not, we would have lost American distribution.

In general, in terms of business, the money for Russian films won’t be found in Russia. All you can earn here is a million, maybe two million dollars, and even that you have to share with the movie theaters. For any film, regardless of budget, that’s not business, if you only take into account the Russian side.

--There’s really nothing strange about it. It’s the same thing in the majority of European countries. They don’t break even on their own markets. That’s why the state helps. They break even on a film when it becomes pan-European and goes beyond the boundaries of its homeland. We simply need to learn to see ourselves in that unified space. We also need to understand precisely who we are making a film for. For example, I have one project underway that’s been going on for two years and has another two year to go, a full-length animation feature. I imagine this film taking on Shrek on the world distribution market. It’s 3D with an English script. I would also love to make a cult film just for the Russian audience, a young, cutting-edge film that would try to answer the question of who is a hero today.

Interview by Anna Starobinets and Vsevolod Brodsky