Roman BALAIAN: I never change my step

Three countries claim Roman Balaian as their national: Armenia, Ukraine, and Russia. His films, such as Filyor, Protect me, My Charm, and Flights in Dreams and in Reality, have enriched the lives of many. His films are rightly con­si­de­red classics, and you turn to them as to your favorite books from various stages of life, knowing they will always reveal something new. The creative potential of the artist is amazing. His wise, fair, and honest attitude to life deserves respect. I have been lucky enough to be on friendly terms with his family, whom I simply adore for their authenticity. It is not only my personal opinion, all those whose lives have crossed his in some way agree. Balaian celebrated his birthday on April 15.

I don’t want to speak about anniversaries or making assessments. Thus, I will start from the end. Usually you celebrated your birthdays either with breaking a dish, or fi-nishing a film. What is happening in your life these days?

“I will be able to tell you this in a month, if the script I submitted is accepted. I wrote it myself, then rejected it and invited scriptwriter Marina Mareeva for cooperation. I agree with three-quarters of her work, but the rest goes in a different direction. If everything will be okay, we will launch a film on June 15.”

Will it be a Russian or Ukrainian film? Who is funding it?

“This will be a Russian film. The Dovzhenko Studio is going to assist with the equipment. Hopefully, the Moscow producer will agree.”

Where will the shooting take place?

“In Kyiv. I belong to those who are able to bring Russian money to Ukraine.”

Are there any ideas about the casting?

“You mean the actors? No. The main hero is 35 years old, the heroine is 20. Preferably, the girl should be of Botticelli type. And the hero should have the face of an intellectual (chuckling).”

Twenty years and an intellectual face?

“No, it’s the heroine who’s 20. The hero is 35. For the first time in my life I cannot even vaguely name actors of this age. We will look for them.”

Russian cinema has a great number of cheap entertaining films. Such mass cinema is trapped in the cycle of remakes.

“Why? There are many art-house films, about five or six out of seventy. Is this bad?”

In your opinion, what important and interesting things can you discuss with the audience nowadays? What things may provoke a response?

“I’m not sure about what the audience will respond to. I’m sure that we should shoot movies dedicated to eternal themes, not situational or transient ones, which I think is opinion journalism, as this is a subject of documentary interest. We should make movies about eternal things – love and betrayal, the fools and the clever – there’s nothing else left. In the Soviet time, when you made fists of your hands in the pockets, say, secretly we oppose this power, the statesmen won’t read it, the clever will understand – this is all in the past. The peripheral way of thinking is a provinciality we’ve inherited from the Russian Empire, the Soviet time, and we should draw a line. I am not interested in shooting films showing that in today’s Ukraine everything has improved. So I think we should speak about eternal, universal things. There are a total of 36 plots in the world. You make a short summary, choose the topic and write a script (chuckling).”

You have mentioned power, what can you say about the country’s current social policy?

“What is social policy? I know almost nothing about it. I don’t know. I am knowledgeable about cinema.”

What can you say about the cinema?

“Starting from 1991 the government has not understood the role of ci­ne­matography. Say, in Russia Putin put 150 million dollars into cinema seven or eight years ago. Russia has films where the Cheka is noble, as is the KGB. But there are also many other films, some 60 or 70. They are integrating their mentality in the world via cinematography. I think our government does not get it. And cinematography is about making films and bringing them into the world. This is not literature in translation, read by a mere three persons, or painting, when single persons come to the gallery, it’s not pop culture, thank God. We are missing this role of propaganda, integration into the world, because we do not integrate anything except for chemicals and metals. These things are in demand, the question is whether they can be the ‘country’s face.’ As for what is closest to me personally and interests me most… I am a member of the organizing committee of Mykolaichuk’s 70th anniversary events that are to take place on June 15. Ukraine’s cinema artist, the audience’s favorite and other top accolades. The committee has for four months been discussing the funding needed to hold these anniversary events. Why? Any government should take interest in a worthy commemoration of such a man, not making us think about money. This is something beyond my understanding.”

Have you appealed to the government? To the Cinema Agency?

“They say they lack money, as allegedly 100 million have been allotted to cinema this year.”

Where are your productions going? Film grows old, have you managed to digitalize them?

“The Dovzhenko Studio has released four movies, which are on sale now, but I have not seen them yet. They made them a year ago. And I paid from my pocket to digitalize seven more, in Moscow’s Belye Stolby. I corrected the picture on a PC, and even cut the films a bit. Yes, I do have them at home.”

And only four films for general use?

“My version’s quality is even higher than in those four. To make a high-quality picture, you should spend about 5,000 dollars for one. They digitalized all seven films for 3,700 dollars, because I’m an acquaintance.”

From olden times people have been arguing about the Association of Movie-makers, whether it is viable and promising.

“Not to offend anyone working with the association – they are trying something, they come up with some propo­sals – but all this was resolved only in the Soviet Union, with their slogans, dreams and problems. Starting from 1991, everything lost proper monitoring and the attention of the state, which is why initiative in the lower ranks is decreasing. However, very decent people are working in and heading the association. But when Mikhalkov is not able to make a move, we have complete stagnation. The House of Cinematography is a gerontological orphanage, where we will be able to gather when we are still alive with 10 to 15 years left, this will be important. People can come, watch films free of charge, see each other, learn about others’ illnesses, see that someone is absent, someone will tell some plea­sant news. This is a get-together in a po­sitive meaning of the word. If I were the association, I would deal with the question of debutants more closely. I am ready to help anyone, if I see the grain of talent in their work. They say that there are many geniuses among the university graduates, but why don’t they shoot anything? In their time Masloboishchykov and Andreichenko debuted only owing to my insistence. The studio was against this, and I ma­naged to persuade them. These boys shot their films because I never doubted their talent. When I am sure about something, I push forward like a tank. I will never ask or try to get something for myself, but will go to everyone for the sake of talent.”

The graduates from the local cinema school will go to the television at best or leave the country for a place where their profession is in demand. What are the prospects for Ukrainian cinema?

“None. First and foremost, the state should spend money on young people. I don’t know what products will they make, but hopefully out of 20 people five will turn out to be capable mo­vie-makers, who ought to make films. I’m not offering anything more. I would not put the young people and their scripts under severe control, because if you actively intrude, they will say: We could not shoot a good film because of pressure. Twenty debuts, five of them will become productions, the rest will understand they should seek their path in a different sphere. Our cinema needs a blockbuster to change for the better. Who is able to shoot it in Ukraine? I don’t know. Such cinema is needed to involve investors who will understand that you can earn money in cinemato­g­raphy not only from kickbacks but from the production itself. A commercial project is needed for this and a good director as well. He may be an American, it does not matter; most importantly, the film should be dedicated to some Ukrainian topic which is close to us. This will bring serious investments to the cinema, because a producer using only governmental funding is half a producer. In Europe and the world real ci­nema seeks investments. An investor should know what he is giving his mo­ney for, believe that a person is a ca­pab­le movie-maker, and the film will not just pay him pack, but bring profits.”

Is anything interesting taking place in cinema?

“The Russian Sigarev is now by far the most talented youth, he came to ci­ne­ma from dramaturgy. His film Volchok (Whirligig) is really difficult, but very interesting as well. Russia’s formers Soviet movie-makers are discussing why there are so many gory films. I think the time of autopsists and pathoanatomic analyses has arrived. Another thing is that those who make such films should in the end offer a solution. It should not be ideological, but like in Fellini’s films, for example when Cabiria smiles at a passing-by youth. It’s like grass growing through asphalt.”

Do you want a happy ending?

“There will be happy ending when we will be living in a democratic state, a totally different state, which thinks about these things. America is a land of newcomers, in need of winners. In their films, if the hero is not killed half an hour after the movie starts, we don’t believe that he will ever be killed. In 10 minutes he will resurrect by some miracle and in the end he, safe and sound, goes home to hug his wife and children.”

What is taking place in terms of preparing a new generation? Is there a Ukrainian cinema school?

“I’m not sure. I have been trying to open directors’ courses with no age restrictions. Moscow’s higher courses admit people under 35 with a higher education. The organization of such courses requires money. We need premises, three cameras, and there should be cutting rooms. The world’s greatest film directors are to be invited for master classes every month – 12 masters in a year term. For example, Kusturica, Coppola etc. We should pay for a VIP reception and three days of master classes. They are going to throw dust in the students’ eyes. This month one director comes, everyone agrees that we should shoot cinema like him; in a month Almadovar comes, and after the 12th ‘Chaplin’ their heads will go round. The strongest will become good directors, but anyway all the students will become professionals after such a school. I have been obsessed with this idea since 1996. I’ve tried to organize such a thing in Yerevan and Kyiv. Nothing came out of this because the project is costly. I’m not interested in bringing this idea to the Karpenko-Kary University. The successful producer Oleh Kokhan is aware of this idea, I have told him everything in detail. He is dealing with it now, but I doubt that he will succeed. Incidentally, I’m not going to be a teacher. I would invite the local professionals, and the rest will be made up of the ‘Chaplins.’”

But you are also a masterful director?

“I don’t like this. If there will be such course, my participation will be restricted to entry exams, where I’m going to invite Mikhalkov, Kusturica, and Panfilov. If four different people like us will decide that the aspirant is talented, he is talented indeed.”

But should the state take interest in this?

“If it won’t be interested, there will be no courses. I will be very much upset, because this is a purpose, when you think about those who should come after us, to take care about the future.”

A pleiad of great actors died in the past few years. The repertoires of thea­ters were based on them, they were the cinema’s strongholds. Besides, the attitude to the profession and the system of relationships in society has changed. What prospects does a young actor have in view of this?

“Those who left loved money too, but not as much as the young generation, which gets involved in all kinds of projects for profit; they are getting devalued, these young people and 45-olds. I’m intentionally not naming them, not to insult anybody. Abdulov, Yankovsky, Ulyanov, Gurchenko… They were enchanting. These people brought their charisma to any story, a plot, where they were involved. Because the traces of their past lives were in their eyes.”

You said that in the stream of pre­sent-day gory cinema we need some hope. Are you hopeful?

“About my future films or my life?”

Is your life mostly made by your films?

“I will give you a very simple answer: despite how gloomy the present is, in our personal lives, in society, and in the state, morning comes anyway. Every day happiness and tragedy get a new beginning.”

Is a person able to turn even the tragedy in his life into happiness?

“Perhaps there are such people. But I don’t like them. These are the greatest cynics. Werewolves. Take for example some of the current moneybags: they are building life only for themselves. Their inner ego burns down.”

Is there a formula for preserving oneself?

“Maybe. For example, I never change my step, because I don’t like it when somebody hastens me, telling that we must hurry, that we should say some words. This is a violation of my organic nature. You should restrict yourself, not to waste ourself. You should stay in your element. Always.”

What is the most important thing for you in the system of family values?

“I’m ready to do much for my fa­mi­ly, my wife, daughter, son, and grandson. To sacrifice as much as I can, this is natural when you do this for close people. And the words ‘I love my family’ are just a gene­ral expression.”

There is a biological and a passport age. How old are you?

“Illnesses bother me sometimes, but they don’t prevent me from having fun. In my heart I’m the same good-for-no­thing, as for me. This becomes especially noticeab­le when I come to Mykola Rapai. You should see us fooling around.”