The premiere of the film “Collector” took place at Kinotavr, a benefit performance in which he played a bank collector faced with the consequences of his affairs. For almost an hour and a half of screen time, no one appears on the screen except the artist and the numerous phones of his characters. After the show, Gazeta.Ru talked with the artist.
— What was the acting interest and challenge for you in this work, besides the fact that this is a monofilm?
- Well, yes, on the surface it is that this is a race for one person. But besides this interesting story- not just a story about the movement of funds, traffic, schedules, and so on. And the story is about a man at the moment of stopping and rethinking some values.
You see, we don’t always find the courage to ask ourselves the questions: “What are you doing? Who are you next to? Do you need these people? For the hero of the film, just such a painful moment has arrived, a moment of decision-making.
— After the show, several colleagues and I discussed one simple question. In your opinion, is the hero, given his type of activity, a good person?
- He is talented and charming. Another thing is that he causes many, to put it mildly, inconvenience, but nevertheless, this is his job. The surgeon also cuts a person alive, but he does this not to cause pain, but on the contrary, to remove something unnecessary from the body. My hero is imaginative about his work, but in reality he simply tells people: “You took the money, please return it.” In fact, he simply calls for responsibility for his actions. Is this a good person? Let's understand what people are like who call us to answer for our words and, even more so, for our deeds. It seems to me that you can’t call them bad.
— The hero introduces himself several times during the work different people. Does this have any basis? Do debt collectors really behave this way?
- This is his technology, his fantasies that he played with. Our director, as far as I know, studied the working methods of collectors. But I can say for sure that such technologies exist and are successfully used, for example, by your colleagues (smiles). And why then cannot they exist in banking structures?
— Have you encountered debt collectors yourself in your life?
“I am responsible for my actions, and therefore I did not have to deal with them.
— In one of your interviews, I read that the actor’s task is to give something to the hero and at the same time take something from him. Can you say what you gave and took from Arthur?
- Well, I can’t say yet what I took - not much time has passed, it’s still unknown what will remain. In general, as I already said, this situation of stopping and asking myself a question was very close to me. The very question that we try to avoid, so as not to create problems for ourselves in life. There is some kind of way of life, an attitude, we go with the flow - it’s easier that way.
And there are people who begin to ask questions and leave the usual flow of life. This was the main thing for me.
— Yesterday I realized that the program showed three films in a row with the main actors of the 2000s - with, with you and...
— With Seryozha Bezrukov.
- Yes. And I remember how in the 2000s there was no escape from you. You have been on television, in films... And now this is not the first time you have recent years come to Kinotavr with original films. Is this a conscious choice?
— I try, if possible, to act more in good films. It just so happened that “The geographer drank his globe away,” and now “ good boy" and "Collector" were included in the Kinotavr program. But at the same time I’m filming the space epic “The Time of the First”, it’s on a completely different scale, but this picture is no different from auteur cinema in terms of approach to business - this is also a story of people. I arrived for the filming of “Geographer” in Perm two days after filming of the huge American project with a huge budget.
And I could see what the difference was from a budget standpoint, but in terms of the attitude, it was all the same.
— How are things going with your foreign work, by the way? Now Russian artists they are increasingly trying to build a parallel career there.
— I understand my capabilities well, and I prefer to work in my native language - now, thank God, there are enough offers in my native language. There are several projects, very interesting directors and stories, and now I’m trying to make sure that I work on them not simultaneously, but sequentially.
Curving like a boomerang, the casting fate of Konstantin Khabensky forwarded him through all possible roles - a tyrant and a klutz, a warrior and a terrorist, a loser and a charismatic - from the role of a senior lieutenant in “Deadly Force” to the role of investigator Rodion, which will cost many. Multiply the maniac from the series “Dexter” by Russian reflection and Shukshin’s landscapes - and you get our “Method”, not meaningless, but merciless. True love knows no boundaries - we went to visit the main actor of the country in Nizhny Novgorod, where in the very heart of the patrimony of Balabanov’s “Zhmurok” the filming of Alexander Tsekalo’s production project is taking place.
From a street musician to the role of a maniac investigator in the TV series “Method”, Khabensky always goes his own way, doing and saying only what he considers necessary and important. He told us about the roles that influenced his life and how he changes the lives of others: about his charitable foundation, children's studios creative development and the musical “Generation Mowgli”, staged in collaboration with MTS.
First, before entering the theater institute, you studied at the Leningrad College of Aviation Instrumentation. Did you want airliners to take to the skies with your name on board?
This was an absolutely normal desire for any free-thinking person to quickly leave school and the care of his parents for a free life. But by the third year of technical school, I finally realized that only in theory I am a god, but in practice I don’t understand anything at all about technology and I need to stop with this. I mastered many professions, in the eternal search for a source of income, I was a janitor, a floor polisher, a street musician, and a stage installer at the Saturday theater studio, which, by the way, is still alive to this day. It was in “Saturday” that I first found myself on stage as a so-called pea, that is, an extra, then I got some words in the play, and pretty soon I felt an interest in acting. As soon as I liked it, I thought that there was probably a university that taught all this, and I decided to go to it.
That is, when submitting documents to LGITMiK, you did not consciously strive to enter the workshop of Veniamin Filshtinsky?
No, it was a happy accident. In the summer of 1990, I was going to enter two Moscow universities at the same time, I think GITIS and VGIK, but I simply didn’t have enough money for a ticket, and I stayed in St. Petersburg. So he ended up with Veniamin Mikhailovich.
In the early 1990s, not only the Soviet Union, but also the entire theater system. Have you ever felt like you chose the wrong profession?
All this trouble fell on the shoulders of the course that was released in front of us. They could not find a job, many left the profession. But we were so busy with our studies - acting students are at the university from nine in the morning until midnight, seven days a week - that we didn’t have time to think about how things would turn out. later life. As a result, out of twenty-six applicants, thirteen people reached the diploma, and five of my fellow students are working in their specialty today. The numbers speak for themselves.
However, you, Mikhail Porechenkov, Mikhail Trukhin, and Ksenia Rappoport, who studied at the same time as you, are successful in the profession. What did the master teach you?
First of all, dedication. And also the ability to give everything you are capable of at the very moment when you are called, for example, to audition for a movie.
During your last year at LGITMiK, you served in the Perekrestok theater.
It was located in the attic of the long-demolished Palace of Culture named after the First Five-Year Plan, in the place of which there is now a new stage of the Mariinsky Theater. It was an experimental studio theater in which our entire course performed. We lasted a year and a half in 1995–1996 - quite a long time in the conditions of lack of money at that time. They made the decorations themselves, they themselves looked for the coveted hundred dollars from sponsors to print posters, which they then posted around the city themselves. Yuri Butusov's play "Waiting for Godot", staged there, was a great victory.
During these same years, did you try yourself as a TV presenter?
I hosted the “Parovoz TV” music chart on Regional Television, one of the most popular programs at that time. It seemed to be a job for money, but nevertheless I tried to look for some new forms of self-expression. Then there was another information program“By the way,” so I even managed to work as a news anchor, although not for long. I came up with some funny leads to essentially humorous plots. One grandmother, apparently our regular viewer, ambushed me after the broadcast and attacked me indignantly: “What are you doing, we believe you!” It was then that I realized that it was not in vain that I studied acting. Working on television was necessary practice for further work in cinema, in order to confidently interact with the camera and look confidently into the lens.
You did not immediately move to Moscow, working in parallel in two cities for several years.
Yes, there was a period in 1996–1997 when I played simultaneously in both Satyricon and the Lensovet Theater. In the Moscow theater, with Konstantin Arkadyevich Raikin, he appeared on stage in “Cyrano de Bergerac” and in “The Threepenny Opera”, and in St. Petersburg - in the performances of Yuri Nikolaevich Butusov “Waiting for Godot” and “Woyzeck”. But soon he returned completely to St. Petersburg for several years, stopping playing in Moscow, only because he missed the big work that Butusov was offering at the Lensovet Theater at that time. It was the role of Caligula in the play of the same name, and I didn’t even have any doubts about what to do.
You played in Caligula for ten years, flying to this performance after moving to Moscow, and two years ago you returned to this play by Camus. Why?
Didn't release the material. But since at my age to play in this performance, designed for young performer, it was simply indecent, I chose new uniform- a literary and musical evening, during which he read excerpts from the play accompanied by symphony orchestra under the direction of Yuri Bashmet.
How old do you feel?
In different ways, in this sense, I am very chattering: sometimes I forget myself and behave like a fourteen-year-old teenager, and other times some very old grandfather rushes out of me.
Can Yuri Butusov be called the theater director closest to you?
Yuri Nikolaevich and I periodically meet again and again, I am always ready to cooperate with him. It is now even difficult to call his productions performances; they are rather theatrical mysteries with a capital “P”. I'll have the nerve to call myself his actor. I don’t really understand intellectual theater, preferring emotional theater to it. One that will not let you fall asleep and will reach the viewer in the thirty-second row. If a person laughs and cries in the theater, the goal has been achieved. Then there is only clowning, this is generally aerobatics.
Can't work in cinema or don't want to work with directors on a regular basis?
You should not abuse the attention of directors by moving from one of their projects to another. Even if you succeed in something, it’s better to take a break, step aside, see what the director does next, and get involved in the next projects. Maybe it’s the same in the theater.
To Moscow art theater Were you personally invited by Oleg Tabakov in 2002?
Yes, we were introduced, and pretty soon he offered me participation in one performance, which I considered uninteresting for myself. And literally two weeks later an offer was received to play Zilov in “ Duck hunting” based on Vampilov’s play, and, of course, it was impossible to refuse it.
Are you satisfied with your current employment at the Moscow Art Theater?
I've been through everything. You can play thirty-four performances a month and not get tired at all, or you can go on stage four times a month and even after that you can barely crawl. I don’t want to come to the theater as a job, treat it as a source of earning money. You need to go on stage, splash out and leave, but it doesn’t make sense to do it any other way. That’s why my voice still disappears from time to time and my eyes burst. I can’t do it otherwise. And in this situation, it doesn’t matter how many performances I’m involved in. As for my workload at the Moscow Art Theater, the story is very simple: at some point I asked Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov to release me from all productions except “The Threepenny Opera” for a while, for one season, in order to take a little break from the theater. He understood me, and we agreed that I would return in a year with a new idea. And so it happened, we came to him together with the stage designer Nikolai Simonov and offered to stage “Double Bass” by Patrick Suskind, already having ready-made solution performance and scenery. It was brazen and daring, but I didn’t see how to take the next step in the profession differently. It was necessary to break one’s back: before it was impossible, later it will be difficult. Our “Double Bass” is a production not so much about a musician, but about a person in general creative profession minding his own business. And I see around enough of those who live by inertia and are not looking for anything new. As a result, “Double Bass,” which premiered this spring, turned out to be very correct both in terms of the genre and, excuse me, the accumulated internal experience, human and acting.
Did you find the director yourself?
It was fate. Kolya Simonov and I were looking for someone who would develop and bring our idea to its logical conclusion. The young director Gleb Cherepanov was at that moment making a play on Small stage Moscow Art Theater, we talked to him and realized that we were suitable for each other.
The genre range of your film roles is extremely wide - from Kolchak in the biopic “Admiral” to a teacher from the town of Palchiki in the comedy “Freaks”. Is there any logic behind this?
Of course, there is a certain internal logic here: first of all, I am interested in doing something that I have not done before. It could be a new genre or character for me. But all this is thinking on the shore, and then, when we get into the boat, everything can turn out any way we want; unfortunately, it is impossible to foresee the result. Of course, I want to destroy my stereotypical positive image, created by means mass media. On the other hand, given the viewer’s habit of associating an actor and his characters, I cannot afford to play exclusively negative characters.
Do the roles played leave a mark on the actor’s life?
At first I thought that they did not manifest themselves in any way. They manifest themselves, and how! In some cases, I can say this with joy, what you acquire on stage and in cinema becomes part of your character, and in some cases, your destiny.
Didn't your role in Day Watch bother you?
This is not to say that I am baptized for every dome, but sometimes I refuse very extreme proposals. This may depend on your mood, fatigue or well-being at that particular moment. In fact, many factors influence when you are called for some job, and you sharply and categorically say no.
The series “Method,” which is currently filming, touches on the topic of violence. You play the role of a maniac investigator.
The product we are shooting now in Nizhny Novgorod for Channel One, it’s a very tough story. But unlike most of our crime series, this is not just a thriller or detective story. The message here is very clear, which we agreed on from the very beginning with director Yuri Bykov and the producers. We are trying to explain to the viewer: everything that you, dear friend, see around you, happens thanks to you, because you simply averted your eyes at the sight of injustice.
Is it important for you not to hide your gaze?
Yes, I think this is important, for example, answering your questions now. And I have no reason to look away.
The film “Black Sea” directed by Kevin MacDonald will be released in December. Is this another step towards Hollywood?
This was another opportunity to work and communicate for my own pleasure with those with whom I was interested in doing this. This includes Kevin himself, whose film “The Last King of Scotland” many remember, and the leading actors Jude Law and Scoot McNairy. An interesting international company gathered for the project with the participation of Seryozha Puskepalis, Sergei Veksler, Grisha Dobrygin, and I thought: why not? This is not career growth, not a desire to go to Hollywood, but just another adventure. It is with this understanding that I approach similar stories, be it “Wanted”, “Tinker Tailor Spy!” or “World War Z,” from which my entire rather large role was completely cut out. I like to fantasize with colleagues who have become very famous, but have retained the desire to develop.
Do you feel like a Muscovite after twelve years of living in the capital?
It's difficult for me to answer this question. I travel all over the country, and for the last six months, for example, I spend most of my time in Nizhny Novgorod. I can only say that I still live in the same routine that is familiar to me.
Which one exactly?
In energy conservation mode, which is very typical for St. Petersburg residents. I try not to run around with my tongue hanging out. And although I plan a lot for myself, even if I only complete half of what I planned, I think that’s already good.
More than seventy people take part in the musical “Mowgli’s Generation” - children and adults, famous and beginners. How did you manage to bring everyone together?
We conduct annual festival called “Plumage”, which attracts troops from all the cities where our studios operate. At one of these festivals the idea was born to make modern version a play based on Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”, about a human cub in the concrete jungle. Musician Alexey Kortnev joined the project as a composer, and artist Nikolai Simonov proposed absolutely brilliant scenery. We didn't want it to be a performance using three cubes and one spotlight; the result had to be serious. As a result, a bright musical was born called “Generation Mowgli”, which simultaneously employs seventy-two studio students aged from nine to fourteen years and five adult actors. In my opinion, the performance was not at all embarrassing, it has every chance of being sold out. So far it exists only in Kazan, but in December we are planning a premiere in Ufa. In general, according to my plans, in each of the eight cities in which our creative development studios operate, the musical “Mowgli’s Generation” should be staged with its own cast.
What is your role in this project?
We have a director, Ainur Safiullin, a graduate of Sergei Zhenovach’s workshop. He will continue to work with this project in other cities. I acted here as the author of the idea, artistic director. Everyone whom I was able to attract to this project as technical specialists either agreed to work for a very symbolic remuneration or refused it altogether, and many adult actors transferred their fees to our Foundation. Alexey Kortnev, Timur Rodriguez, Gosha Kutsenko did an excellent job with their roles, despite the fact that all of them are crazy busy. I rehearsed with them via video, sent them recordings of the process, and when they arrived on site, everyone was ready - input into the already thought-up drawing was very fast. Of course, their names attract spectators and media attention to the performance. Now Timur Bekmambetov’s team is editing a television version of the musical “Generation Mowgli,” which will be shown on the STS channel, the media partner of our project.
Is the performance intended to help the beneficiaries of your Foundation?
For two years I thought about how to involve my studio students in charity, but I did not want to directly pit the guys against their peers, who found themselves in very difficult situation, literally on the verge of life and death, is something not every adult can emotionally withstand. And I’m very glad that we put it all together so simply: funds from each performance are sent directly to help peers of young actors who are at the moment fighting cancer. Thus, not speculatively and directly at school, our children understand that they need to be merciful and act. They see that they can help not only with pocket money, which many of them simply don’t have, but with their energy, their soul. They realize that if they work with a cold nose, without any emotional investment, they will cease to be interesting to the public and, therefore, will not be able to help save someone’s specific life. In general, you need to understand that “Generation Mowgli” is not just a musical, but a huge charity project that we are implementing together with the MTS company. She supports us almost from the first day when the idea of creating a play was born, because with our modest financial resources we simply could not cope with such an expensive undertaking. Although the original goal was to create a show for children, we were able to go much further. First, we put the children's musical performance, in which they are involved on one stage famous actors, musicians and children from the regions. Secondly, we launched big story on the Internet: this is the official website of the project, dobroedelo.mts.ru, and the group “Generation Mowgli” in social networks, where any child or teenager can take part in creative competitions and thereby help the Foundation’s wards. The point is that creative works, as well as for all activity on social networks, points are awarded, which are then converted into real money and sent to charity. The Internet has become a kind of virtual laboratory where children can try their hand at various competitions aimed at developing imagination, revealing creative potential.
Have you ever encountered refusals from businessmen when approaching them on Foundation matters?
Only because they already have their own similar charity projects. And so everyone meets halfway.
Is it not so easy to reach an agreement with officials?
Yes, this is more difficult. Quite recently, I specially came to St. Petersburg on my day off to communicate with local city authorities: I proposed to create a citywide studio here, hold our “Plumage” festival next year, prepare our own version of “Mowgli’s Generation” and asked for help with the premises. Haven't heard an answer yet.
Photo: Slava Filippov
Collages: Igor Skaletsky
Text: Vitaly Kotov
Konstantin Khabensky, who received the Kinotavr Grand Prix for his role in the film “The Geographer Drank His Globe Away,” told the editor-in-chief of HELLO! Svetlana Bondarchuk about family, creativity and her great charitable work.
About the role of Viktor Sluzhkin
Sluzhkin lives the way we would like to live, but due to various life circumstances, status, signs of the times, we simply cannot afford it. He’s simply bursting with love! He “fantasizes his life” and diligently, but unsuccessfully, tries to live the way he imagined. If he could bring his constructed story to the end, he would not be himself - he would become some kind of bitten apple or something else, but he would be a completely different person, not so interesting to us.
About the beginning of a career
There was work as an assembler at the theater-studio "Subbota" in St. Petersburg. I was a young man, I needed money, but I didn’t want to ask my parents, so I worked and earned very well at that time. And then one fine day all the assemblers were asked to go on stage as theatrical peas.
Then I was transferred for work reasons from assemblers to actors of some category - I was 19 then. And then I decided to try to enroll.
About fame
I think that physiognomic fame came to me not through the theater, but with “Deadly Force.” There is no need to deny it, it must be said thanks a lot To Seryozha Melkumov and Channel One, who made this project: for me it is fateful, because one of important stages advancement in the profession is when an actor begins to be recognized by sight.
About Hollywood
I realize that by definition I won’t do anything serious in Hollywood - simply because I don’t know how to “breathe on English". In the language in which you work, you need to breathe, feel it musically, and not remember the words. Therefore, I treat Hollywood stories as a kind of adventure. The most valuable thing about this is that I have the hypothetical opportunity to communicate with those actors with with whom I would like to communicate. Take the film Wanted (it was released in Russia under the title “Wanted.” - Ed.), they were Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie - people who throw away all their ambitions, statuses and titles, come. onto the set and start working. Eight takes? That means eight takes.
About private space
There is part of the job: red carpets, press conferences, where the actor comes out, introduces the film, takes pictures and smiles as much as possible. And there is a private space. Personally, I’m not going to hide, I don’t want to go only to closed establishments, I want to live the way I live, so I think that people, viewers, whether they like me or not, should understand me. I'm not a photography machine, not a monkey. I have the right to say “no” to requests to be photographed when I am somewhere, smoking, talking with friends - I am not obliged to agree to anything on any request. This is my personal life.
About charity
I believe that if a person is engaged in charity, if he entered this water, did not come back, did not wash his hands, did not dry himself with a towel and did not run away, but continues to do it, then this is correct.
I don’t really want to talk about this topic, because we don’t think, we act. Personally, I have been doing this since 2008, now the staff has been recruited and expanded, they help me a lot good girls, who partially lifted the burden from me and are leading this whole story. We need to go out. You need to understand that we do not have 1-2 funds in the country, but there are different areas, a fairly large range of those who help. There are people. There is help!
About friendship
At the moment when a monstrous, terrible event happened in my life in 2008, many more friends appeared. People who did not become my friends, whom I knew, but they were on the sidelines, they showed themselves incredibly, offered their shoulders, arms, elbows... and I realized that I have a lot more friends. Lenya Yarmolnik, Seryozha Garmash, Misha Porechenkov, Misha Trukhin, Andryusha Zibrov - now in the bustle I can forget someone. It’s not about how much time a year we communicate with them, whether we go on the same stage or not, but about those 3-5 minutes when we see each other, excitedly communicate and run away or ask each other on the phone for help in this or that case , that's the thing.
About my son
Ivan Konstantinovich has been living with his grandparents for two years now. He goes to school, learns German, English, Russian. I think the way his grandparents communicate with him, engage with him, and how his grandparents raise him is top notch. And no nanny can do a better job than grandparents. Therefore, on those infrequent days when I come to Ivan Konstantinovich and we communicate with him, I receive an incredible charge of energy and the understanding that he is already an adult.
He is already an actor, he understands what it is. He performed on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, read poetry, and was seen. Women already like him, he knows how to manipulate people.
About parenting
Mom warmed up my sister and me in every possible way, and dad, yes, was quite strict and principled. He was not in demand in terms of creative potential, he worked as an engineer, built bridges, but inside he, like my grandfather and other relatives, who even tried to enroll in theater institutes, but did not act, the creative principle “sat”.
When I told my parents that I was leaving the Institute of Aviation Instrumentation and Automation to go nowhere, my dad said: “If you don’t like it, go.” Then, when I suddenly said that I was going to theater school, he replied: “If you like it, go.” When I got ready to see Konstantin Raikin, who invited me to Satyricon, my father told me a story from his distant past, when he and Raikin, as children, were sitting in the same car, that is, they knew each other - his father Arkady and my grandfather were familiar.
How did you decide to take on such a difficult directorial mission? At what point did you realize that being an actor was not enough for you?
The thought never occurred to me that being an actor was not enough for me - that’s enough for me today. It’s just that from the producers of the film, in addition to the offer to play Alexander Pechersky, they also received an offer to take the helm big ship called “Sobibor” and write your own story. I thought about it and agreed. Apparently, by that time (and this happened about two years ago), enough knowledge had accumulated about cinema in all its aspects - both cinematography, directing, and acting - that it was possible to start creating a film with this baggage. If I did not have such baggage or if it were not enough at the time of making the decision, I most likely would not have entered this story as the captain of the ship.
How difficult was it to combine acting and directing? Did someone help you?
No, no one helped. As they say, help yourself: saving drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves. Of course, it was difficult, because there was no directing practice. But nevertheless, there was an understudy who walked around the site instead of me. In addition to the suit, there was a walkie-talkie attached to it; I spoke my lines, my texts into this walkie-talkie, and my partners picked up the dialogue. I tried to correct everything both from the point of view of mise-en-scène and from the point of view of content, and then I entered the frame myself, played the scene and then looked at the material. This is what concerns the so-called moment of splitting.
- You also participated in the creation of the script?
Yes, there were no other options. By the time I was offered to participate in the film, the script and idea had already been circulating in film circles for a long time, and various screenwriters were involved in them. There were, in my opinion, about four or five versions of the script. And when I started filming, I had a whole bouquet on my table different directions and options. I began to compose my version, starting or not starting, accepting or not accepting some directions in other versions. The main support and advice in creating the script came from Alexander Anatolyevich Mindadze. He, as a noble and modest man, suggested that I leave my name as a screenwriter. Since this is a debut, let there be a debut in everything.
This was sometimes composed directly while the “music” was being played. Sometimes I realized that we would not be able to film how we came up with this or that story “on the shore.” For example, I hatched and came up with the same ending of the film during the filming process. The same is true in some other episodes that were thought up, filmed and, thank God, remained in the film the way we came up with them. Often it was just improvisation.
- The film “Sobibor” is human history, not entirely easy to understand, but quite emotional. Photo: Andrey Salova
The true background of Sobibor was revealed not so long ago, because this camp for the extermination of the Jewish population was classified. It was located in Poland and operated for about a year and a half. In 1943, there was a prisoner uprising there; they killed most of the guards and commandant's office of the camp and fled. This is the only known mass escape from a concentration camp in history. About four hundred people fled, not all were able to escape, and only about fifty of them ended the war, that is, lived to see victory.
My hero remains a mystery
- Where did you get the information from and did you communicate with relatives of people who survived that nightmare?
I talked to my relatives after filming. Sometimes too much exact knowledge material interferes. This is not a documentary, but fiction, based on real events, dates and locations. But how everything really happened... This is always very subjective - even eyewitnesses and contemporaries of those events often have different memories. Sometimes they are very precise in detail, but nevertheless subjective. Therefore, I was interested in these very details and details, but not everything else... The film is rather my thoughts, my feelings and my intuition about what could have happened there. Moreover, I will say: this is even the softest version, although it turned out to be quite emotional.
- Have you yourself figured out what the secret of your hero Alexander Pechersky is, how did he manage to accomplish this feat?
I haven’t figured it out, I’ll tell you honestly, and it’s impossible to figure it out. For me, it’s a huge fantastic mystery how in those conditions, in that Babylonian multilingualism (and in the film we preserved the multilingualism of all nationalities whose representatives ended up in Sobibor) the stars came together, Pechersky’s energy, his magnetism, his crazy desire to get people out, that he was able to make it happen. Apparently, people were already so driven and pressed to the point where they would not return that they were ready to commit such a daring uprising with their bare hands, teeth, anything they could to save their lives. For me, this is still on the same level as, say, the first man going into space and returning him back, like the first flight of Yuri Gagarin. This is all a superhuman effort that is not determined by mathematics. Therefore, for me this is a mystery, and it can only be solved in one way, but God forbid we end up at the same time, in the same place and in the same circumstances. God forbid.
After filming the film, I felt incredibly calm
- What was the most difficult thing for you in the process of work?
For me, the most difficult thing was to decide to enter this project as a director. And the most incredible thing for today is my calm attitude towards what I have done. Having finished working on a film, for the first time in my life I don’t twitch, I don’t tear out my hair, I don’t say to myself: “Oh, I should have done it this way or that way!” I told myself: “I did everything I could for today.” For me, this is an absolutely incredible formulation and incredible calm. With this work I did everything I could at the moment in the profession, in fantasy and from the point of view of feelings. I didn't expect this from myself in a good way tired calm.
- How was it working with Christopher Lambert, who played the commandant of Sobibor?
From a professional point of view, Christopher Lambert knows the Stanislavsky system quite well. I also passed it, studied and practiced it, so common language we found it instantly, on the first day of shooting. And then our story was built, starting not from the relationship “director-actor”, “superior-subordinate”, but from relationships according to the scale of the Stanislavsky system. He had his own desires and requests, I had my own fantasy. Where our ideas converged, no disputes arose; where they diverged, Stanislavsky’s system helped. And in the end they went in the direction I expected.
- Why do viewers need to watch Sobibor?
I think we have quite a lot of good light films - entertaining, melodramatic: there are enough of them, and that’s good. But not much in lately films have been made that “hit” a little deeper. And sometimes, it seems to me, you need to force yourself to go to similar versions of film stories in order not to forget... No, I’m going to say something stupid! So that a person can feel the fullness of feelings, so that he does not think that he only needs to cry over a dog with an injured leg. Yes, this is wonderful, and the dog’s eyes also speak volumes, but sometimes you need to empathize and sympathize with those people who remain in history. After all, even if they are sometimes short life path ensured our long stay in today's life. Sometimes you need to watch films like this in order to get the palette of your inner feelings make it a little wider and a little brighter. Probably so. And, probably, this film should be watched because it has a large charitable component - from each ticket, 5% of the cost will go to help sick children - this is very important. This is probably where we need to start. Or maybe this should end.
The prisoners are preparing for an uprising. Still from the film “Sobibor”
- Now that all the hardest things are behind us, what do you think: are you ready to repeat such a directorial experience?
I won’t even think about it, let’s finish this story, release the movie on screens and into life. It seems to me that the result is a human story that is not entirely easy to understand, but quite emotional, which does not leave the viewer indifferent. It turned out not with the help computer effects, special effects and so on, but only thanks to the acting. I think this is important. And then I can answer the question whether I want to repeat the director’s experience again or not. I know for sure that I am entering my next project - the second season of the series “Method” on Channel One - as an actor, nothing more.
- What did your grandparents and parents tell you about the war as a child? Were there front-line soldiers in your family?
I didn’t have front-line soldiers in my family, so I didn’t hear any stories from eyewitnesses at home. Basically all the information came from school textbooks. But one story, a little obscene, shocked me as a child. In the seventh or eighth grade we had a teacher of NVP - basic military training, and he once told me how he got out of encirclement during the war. And it was, to put it mildly, not a heroic story of how a man survived. And she fell into me so much that she still sits in me. I remember how amazed I was then that this could happen at all, because the textbooks write about completely different facts. For me, this was the first revelation about how impartially people could behave in war, that there were such cases.
- Has your attitude towards this person changed?
No. I laughed at him both before and after. We all laughed at him because he demanded the impossible from us. Even then we didn’t want to march in formation, we were only interested in assembling and disassembling the Kalashnikov assault rifle, everything else didn’t interest us. But his story shocked me: it was my first moment of doubt that everything was as clear as it was written in the textbooks. Having grown up, I, of course, already read some literature, then let’s go different stories related to cinema. Including filming in Dmitry Meskhiev’s film “Ours” fifteen years ago - in my opinion, this is a very honest and correct story. But in order to believably play in it, I bought about fifteen videotapes with films about the war, where actors who went through it or were present during that time were filmed. I looked at everything. There, too, there was not always a human truth that suited me: many films were rather cardboard - even though the actors went through the war, they played very, very untruthfully, in my opinion. But there were also films that still live in episodes in my mind and which are, probably, a bar - a tuning fork for what cinematic truth is. These are such films as “Road Check”, “Father of a Soldier”, “Only Old Men Go to Battle”, “They Fought for the Motherland”, “Twenty Days Without War”.
I know how to ask for forgiveness
- You once said that you are afraid that suddenly, having become a leader, you will turn into a tyrant. Director - main man on the site. Have you had to show tyranny in any way?
Well, of course. Tyranny comes in different forms. It seems to me that I am a tough leader in terms of organizing the process and discipline, creating a creative atmosphere, and everything else... I don’t think that I am smarter or better than others. I think that I have some kind of fantasy vector that I share with my colleagues. And if my vector coincides with their mood, it’s joyful; if it doesn’t, I have the patience to hear and understand our electorate in order to come to a common opinion.
Christopher Lambert and Maria Kozhevnikova in the film Sobibor
- Were their heads flying?
No, heads didn't fly. The film production deadlines were quite tight, so there was no time to do more “axe-heading”. And desires, as well as, in principle, necessities. Yes, I probably have a difficult character. But I can absolutely calmly admit that I was wrong and ask for forgiveness. I can still do this, I haven’t forgotten how.
- Having tried yourself in the directing profession, can you say who is your teacher in this area?
There is no one, single teacher. Now I’ll start naming, I’ll forget someone, and someone will say: “Oh, that’s how you remember well...” I’ll start with the fact that my first teacher is the master of our St. Petersburg workshop, Veniamin Mikhailovich Filshtinsky. It was he who gave the profession and the foundation into my hands. The basis is this: approach to the role. He taught me how to start and where to start with my imagination in search of a character, in working on a role. This is important because, unfortunately, not everyone has this acting school. Then there was probably a “school” of my film travels, acquaintances and understanding of cinema from the point of view of directors, cameramen, actors, artists, stuntmen, costume designers, and make-up artists. Everyone has their own approach, their own vision, their own preferences. Here, too, it was important for me to hear, overhear, agree with something and take it forever, give up something immediately, and so on. That is, I took and continue to take courses at a similar film academy.
So I had quite a lot of people who sit deep inside me and whom I can call teachers. This is Alexey Yuryevich German, Dmitry Dmitrievich Meskhiev, Sergey Olegovich Snezhkin, Timur Bekmambetov, Yuri Bykov, Alexander Veledinsky, Sergey Garmash, Mikhail Porechenkov, Oleg Efremov, Sergey Machilsky, Vlad Opelyants, Misha Krichman, Konstantin Arkadyevich Raikin, Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov... I can tell you many more names of people from whom I continue to learn.
But again I will return to my master Veniamin Mikhailovich Filshtinsky. He released me into the world with the words: “Don’t be afraid of anything, and most importantly, don’t be afraid to continue learning!” I remember it well. And I’m still not afraid to continue learning something I don’t know. But there were also examples of people famous names who taught me a very correct truth: do not create an idol for yourself! Having met them, I was upset that they did not remain for me forever just favorite movie characters whom I would never have known in reality, like Charlie Chaplin, for example. After communicating with them in life, I had complete, monstrous disappointment both in the profession and in people. Therefore, it seems to me that it is not entirely correct to name anyone specifically: there were quite a lot of “teachers”, and I learned something from everyone.
- Did Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov play a big role in your life?
I can say that he taught me two very important things: attitude towards life and attitude towards the profession. In principle, it is on these starting points that my close circle of friends is probably built - their attitude towards the profession, understanding and attitude towards life. Because if one of these components is lame, then these people are not, figuratively speaking, at my table. And Oleg Pavlovich managed to gather around him and release him into great life These are the kind of people who care about their profession and life.
- Did you have any favorite teachers at school? What memories do you have of her?
I remember with warmth both school and student days. I now understand that those were great times. And for some reason the first teacher I remembered was the English teacher. I won’t say her first and last name now, but visually she remains in my memory. I remembered it because she tried to do school activities with us. Once I played a piece from Hamlet in jeans and a long sweater - I don’t remember which one, but in English. Even though I was learning English, I didn’t understand a damn thing what I was saying back then. But in front of me stood the image of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky, and I tried to at least visually match this series. Therefore, a stretched sweater and other things corresponding to that image were found. I remember, of course, class teacher Nina Petrovna, and also, perhaps, geography teacher Natalya Yuryevna.
- I understand that these were your favorite subjects - English and geography?
No, hardly the subjects, but rather the people who taught them. Although I still don’t really know either English or geography, what is where. Moreover, the more flights and transfers I have, the more confused I become in the geography of our globe. Everything is so mixed up in my head that sometimes I think it’s close, but it turns out it’s very far away. Sometimes I think that I am flying very far, but it turns out that I am very close. Everything is relative, it all depends on what thoughts, reflections and fantasies are now in your heart and in your head. Therefore, a 12-hour flight sometimes passes unnoticed, and a 50-minute flight lasts forever.
- Were you a favorite student of your teachers, were you known as a teacher’s pride?
No, why? No, no, I was never a favorite... You know, I was always interested in watching people who behaved shockingly, defiantly at school, on the student bench, and had their own opinion on everything. And I also learned from them. I wasn't like that myself.
- Do I plan to expand my repertoire? Certainly! I’m definitely not going to hang my boots in the locker room just yet. Photo: Andrey Salova
- Eight years ago you began to open creative studios for children in different cities of Russia. Many of these guys will probably call you their teacher. Does this please you?
I don't mind if these guys learned something. But what is important here is not so much what the children learned, although this is, as it were, our final destination, but what kind of team of like-minded teachers, my colleagues, gathered in each of the eleven cities involved. Did they manage to feel and understand what I intuitively wanted to convey to them, or did they not have time? I see that basically everything was done, and that makes me happy. And our teachers are now working wonders with children and creating those highly professional theatrical creations that we simply did not agree on. This is a completely different level for both the children and, dare I say it, the productions. There are a lot of them, and the guys work on professional stages, earn money, which they donate to charity. I mean, this one is beautiful big car earned. I am proud, I am happy that many of these people in different cities have found themselves in life.
- What did Sobibor teach you?
Two things. And I tried to somehow translate this into cinema. Firstly, I would like to believe that in any circumstances, in any situation, there will always be at least one person - you just need to hear him - who will make others believe that they are people too. And the second is that in such institutions, to put it mildly, a bright person will never be born, goodie. If a hero is born, it will be an avenging hero. And the avenger hero, let’s say, is already stained with blood. I tried to put my understanding and my discoveries into the content. Whether the audience considers these moments or not is another question. While working on the film, I sometimes stopped, shedding tears, snot and other things, but removed some scenes from it that were dear to me. Because I understood that they would interfere with the overall perception of the picture.
A friend is someone who can't pretend
- What kind of person should a person be in order to enter that close circle of your friends that you mentioned above?
As the absolutely polar events of my life show, friends should rejoice at successes and empathize with negative events in your life with no less zeal. To become my friend, you just need to be normal person. Well, don't pretend, at least. It is very important not to pretend.
- Classmates Mikhail Porechenkov and Mikhail Trukhin have been your friends for almost three decades. What have you learned from each other over the years of such close communication?
We don’t pretend, we are sometimes, perhaps, even too frank. Otherwise, it makes no sense to continue communication, especially after decades have passed. We are happy for each other, we say sharp words to each other, we joke with each other, we just enjoy communication.
- What qualities do you think have been preserved in you since childhood without changing much?
The devil knows. I think that faith in the expected circumstances. As children, we are very immersed in playing some games, we firmly believe in what we are playing. I think that now this faith in the alleged circumstances, of course, has been a little worn out, leveled out by a certain cynicism and understanding of life, but still it has been preserved - partially.
It’s too early for me to share my experience
- What is the most important thing your parents invested in you? Perhaps some of your parental advice stuck with you and became your life principle?
Understand what motivates the actions of certain people. You should always try to understand. And to understand means to forgive. This is probably the most important thing, and everything else is secondary: making mistakes, correcting them yourself, and so on. Yes, first of all - to understand other people.
- My master Filshtinsky released me into the world with the words: “Fear nothing! And most importantly, don’t be afraid to continue learning.” Photo: Andrey Salova
- It is important for every parent that their child grows up good person, kind, well-mannered...
Naturally.
- What is the main thing you would like to teach children, what experience to convey?
I have not yet reached the point where I pass on experience. I can share some of my thoughts, but the moment when: “Children, I am passing on my experience to you!” - this, thank God, is not in my life yet. In the same studios I share my fantasies on this or that topic. Sometimes we think seriously when we enter some corridors of these fantasies together with the guys, sometimes we don’t, sometimes we joke and goof around. But it seems to me that the formation of a person’s personality is involved in this contrasting soul.
- I remember that Evgeny Mironov inspired you to play sports during preparation for the film “The Time of the First”...
Convinced that it was necessary. And this saved me on the set then. I believed Zhenya, and he turned out to be right. Now I constantly think about the importance of devoting time to sports. I don't go to the gym very often, but I go there. I have a subscription, yes.
- Do you tend to feel nostalgic? Do you save any old photographs, programs, letters?
No, nostalgia is not about me. Although I save something that is dear to my memory, I don’t sit in the evenings and leaf through albums. Of course, I don’t throw away those things that come from the bottom of my heart. I’m saving it for the moment, probably, when I fall into hysteria of insanity and memories of everything that has been done in my life, when I climb onto the monument and sit there. And then I will return to these boxes with posters, souvenirs, gifts and photographs, I will look through them and think that I probably didn’t live my life in vain.
Freedom is when people smile at each other
-Are you planning to expand your repertoire? The audience is really looking forward to your new theatrical works.
Well, why don’t I plan - I plan, I just don’t know with what yet. But I’m definitely not going to hang my boots in the locker room yet. (Smiles.)
- From own works what do you value most?
Probably by doing it yourself. I mean applied arts in the field of wood. I love doing things and making things with my own hands, it doesn’t always work out... But when it does, it’s my pride! Everything else is either ephemeral memories related to the theater, emotional memories, at the level of those people, partners with whom we did it together. Or memories like: “Oh, it’s not bad here, but this is all good movie" and so on. But this has nothing to do with me anymore. Those films that went on a long voyage no longer have anything to do with the artist, because that was then. And now, probably, what is valuable is what is in your work, what you live with, the expectation of what you get up with every morning and go to bed every evening.
- What is freedom for you and how do you manage to remain free with such a rather dependent profession? I'm talking about inner freedom, freedom of choice.
I don’t know, but freedom is probably when people smile at each other. Even if not with Hollywood smiles, but simply with their eyes. This is freedom, I think. Everything else is already an option.
- I travel a lot. And sometimes a 12-hour flight goes by unnoticed, and a 50-minute flight lasts forever. Photo: Andrey Salova
I have nothing to be ashamed of and look away
- Do you believe in fate? You have a phrase in the film: “God will save us, just don’t interfere with him”...
Yes, we came up with it, and I'm very proud of this phrase. This is a phrase that spurs Alexander Pechersky to action. Its effect is completely opposite to the content of the phrase itself. Luke's girlfriend, who together with Pechersky arrived in Sobibor from another concentration camp where he was caught during his escape, is trying to make Pechersky forget this failure. Because because of it, many people died: they were shot simply because others ran. There was such a rule in the camps - every fifth or every tenth person was shot for any attempt to escape. And Luke is trying to make sure that Alexander Pechersky lives at least the last hours of his life in peace. She calls him to humility, which causes a completely opposite reaction.
- How do you feel about the concept of “fate”?
Sincerely.
Friends, family - these are my trusted sources. I don’t have the time or desire to sit on accounts, because this is a completely different form of communication. I understand that it is often much faster and more efficient, but I caveman: I am for a tactile, energetic way of communication. I need a person nearby with whom I talk.
- Why do you think audiences love actor Khabensky so much? Discover the secret of winning hearts. It’s not for nothing that you are called the most popular actor from 2000 to the present day.
You know, when people ask me questions like this, I know the answer. I mind my own business, I have an unpleasant and unbearable character in places, I am a Samoyed, I am all different. But I try to be honest about what I do. This is probably the reason. I don’t have moments in my life when I have something to look away from.
- What brings you into a state of spiritual delight today?
I really hope that I am not in a state of spiritual delight, but in a state peace of mind and balance before starting the next great job will lead to a happy ending to our premiere Sobibor tour across the planet... This time. And second: if, after all, our big bosses calm down and come to an agreement in some part of the Arab world regarding all sorts of events. Perhaps these two moments will bring me a little into a state of calm and peace of mind. And then I will continue to worry the same way. And about the wards of my charitable foundation, and about the situation of our pensioners, and so on. There are things that still keep me in a state of tension, every single case. But today, probably, in order to exhale, these two stories must happen... One concerns me directly: this is a film, a tour, a lot of tension, huge amount interview, different estimates spectators different countries. And the second is a story that, God forbid, will burst like an abscess, and all this will affect not only me...
- Well, God grant that everyone agrees...
God willing, keep your fingers crossed. I hope there are no fools around. I really want to hope so.
Konstantin Khabensky
Education: LGITMiK (workshop of V.M. Filshtinsky)
Family: son - Ivan (10 years old), daughter - Alexandra (1.5 years old), wife - Olga Litvinova, actress of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov
Career: starred in more than 100 projects, including: “Deadly Force”, “On the Move”, “Ours”, “Admiral”, “The Geographer Drank the Globe Away”, “Method”. Founded in 2008 charitable foundation, which helps children with cancer and other severe brain diseases. Since 2010, he has been opening children's creative development studios throughout the country. The continuation of this project was the “Plumage” festival. People's Artist of Russia, actor of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov
1972 January 11 born in Leningrad. 1996 Begins work at the Moscow Satyricon Theater. 2000 All-Russian fame comes with his role in the series “Deadly Force”. 2004 The role of Anton Gorodetsky in the national blockbuster “Night Watch”. 2012 Becoming People's Artist Russia.
It seems to me that I am free, but in reality I am not. I can offer my freedom of views only on stage
One of the most sensational domestic films of the year is being released - “The Geographer Drank His Globe Away” by Alexander Veledinsky. A tragicomedy about a drinking teacher from the provinces, based on novel of the same name Alexey Ivanov, brought the creators several main prizes at Kinotavr - the Grand Prix of the main jury and the Grand Prix of the distributors' jury, as well as awards for music and the best male role- Konstantin Khabensky. By all accounts, in this film he played the hero of our time as accurately as possible. Whether this is true or not, the Friday columnist discussed it in a conversation with Khabensky himself.
It seems that this role had to be matured somehow. Not in the process of reading the script and preparing for filming, but in advance.
You can’t say - especially in cinema - that you spend years preparing for some work. But I, although it sounds immodest, had a premonition of the role. I didn’t know what exactly I was going to play, but I was preparing. I understood that in five years someone would knock on the door. This is what happened with Geographer. Sasha Veledinsky and I met and began to fantasize - not only on the theme of Ivanov’s novel, but also on the themes of the films on which we were brought up: “Flying in a Dream and in Reality”, “Vacation in September”. And we decided to try to braid it all together.
How was the hero greeted by young viewers who had not seen old films?
The hero turned out to be so in demand! I still imagine our film as bright, not devoid of perspective.
But your geographer, Viktor Sluzhkin, lost his job and lives with a wife who does not love him.
From the point of view of the hero himself, he did not fail. This is his philosophy: this is how he protects himself from society, from everyday life. His defense is his idealism and his alcohol. With this he will move on. In this, he and I are probably a little close. As an actor, I have no right to be a cynic and let go of my childhood; I have no right not to be Sluzhkin in at least some way. But he tries to make people think, and then he realizes that both his friends and his students do not understand what he is saying - and, of course, he withdraws into himself. We have no other options in Russia. This is probably why many of my friends think that The Geographer is a dead-end film.
Here, perhaps, we can talk about the epidemic of infantilism that has captured the whole world. A person “does not let go of childhood” - and as a result, even as a teacher, he cannot reach his own students.
Sluzhkin got through. Maybe only one person heard him, but he heard him. Even if it takes a few years, other guys will understand his lessons. I also work with children quite a lot, in my acting studios in eight cities: the more specific and honest you communicate with them, the faster they understand everything and switch to the same language with you.
Is it a coincidence that you have two films in a row - “Freaks” and “The Geographer Drank the Globe Away” - in which you somehow interact with children?
Coincidence. Just like the fact that many guys from the Creative Development Studio in Perm and Yekaterinburg starred in “Geographer”. Something converges at the top, and it matches. The guys, of course, were prepared, but when they went through filming, I asked if they wanted to become actors - they unanimously answered: “No.” This made me very happy.
- Why?
Because already at this age they managed to remove rose-colored glasses, see the working side acting. This helps them communicate with each other and think for themselves. Plus, they understand that acting is a dubious and momentary profession. So they went in other directions. For example, they became biologists.
- What about geographers?
I don't know anyone like that.
What is it like to be an actor in Russia today?
I'm interested. I can’t answer for everyone. True, sometimes nothing interesting comes for a long time, a whole year for example. Maybe I’m complaining in vain, and others have a worse situation. But I’m still interested: in addition to theater and cinema, I have children’s studios where I can throw my energy. This year the second one was held in Ufa All-Russian festival, getting ready for the third.
That is, the situation in theater and cinema is such that famous actor must look for creative satisfaction somewhere on the side. Stalemate situation, no?
I wouldn't say so. Recently I watched the film “There Was No Better Brother” by Murad Ibragimbekov - a brilliant picture, but doomed to failure at the box office. The situation in our cinema, unfortunately, has been brought to such a level that the audience who goes to the cinema will not wait until the middle and will not understand what the problem is.
People go to good Western films more willingly than to Russian ones.
Many people also left Cloud Atlas because they didn’t catch up. Although they brought the money to the cash register. But if the situation in the cinema is really not very good, then people go to the theater.
Even you have few truly significant roles in films. Will there be something to show the children with your participation?
No. But that's okay. In the films where I acted, there are some episodes, scenes that are not bad. I think this is enough. I don’t have films with which I will go to God.
It seems to me that you can contact Geographer.
I'm in no hurry. I want to do some more work.
Is there anything you dream about? Directing, for example?
Directing is a seductive thing for any actor. I understand what kind of profession this is, and I want to try myself in theater directing. I’ll do it with the kids, we’ll figure it out on our own. But I don’t have a dream role. I live by different standards: roles come unexpectedly. How did “Geographer” come?