HARD TO BE A GOD (TRUDNO BYT’ BOGOM) a film by Aleksei German Lifetime Achievement Award for Aleksei German HARD TO BE A GOD (TRUDNO BYT’ BOGOM) a film by Aleksei German

INTERNATIONAL SALES CAPRICCI FILMS Julien Rejl/Manon Bayet [email protected] SYNOPSIS A group of research scientists has been sent to the planet Arkanar, living under an oppressed regime in a period equiva- lent to earth’s Middle Ages. The local population is suffering a ban issued on anyone who knows how to read and write. The scientists must refrain from influencing political and historical events on Arkanar. They must work incognito, and they must remain neutral. Don Rumata, recognized by the locals as a sort of futuristic god, tries to save the local intelligentsia from their punishment. He cannot avoid taking the stance: “What would you do in God’s place?”

Adapted from the 1960’s cult sci-fi novel “Hard to Be a God” by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. ABOUT STATEMENT FROM THE PRODUCTION ALEKSEI GERMAN Hard To Be a God is a project that Russian director Aleksei Svetlana and I usually spend the weekend in the country German had been considering since the mid-1960s. German watching movies. Usually old ones. We have seen «Amarcord» tried to make it as his first film as early as 1964. Instead, he made or Tarkovsky’s films thousands of times. We know them by heart. in respect to , the historic production It is amazing how we are losing the art of film without even company for which the director worked throughout his career. realizing it. When you watch a scene from «» with crying The project was later approved by Goskino, the State agency Kaidanovsky you immediately realize at which high level it was responsible for organizing filmmaking in the , but created. Neither Russian nor American contemporary films can in 1968, after the uprising in Prague, the authorization was reach that level. Film has turned into something for people who revoked for ideological reasons. Twenty years later the director are bored to read the book, and that is why the contents of the returned to the project, but decided instead to make a film that book are narrated to them by actors. This tendency is crucial would take him a long time to complete, Khrustalyov, My Car! for artists as well. That is why I almost never watch modern Ten years later, after stating “I am not interested in anything moovies. I am quite happy with Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini’s but the possibility of building a world, an entire civilization from «Roma», Otar Ioseliani. Muratova’s films, some works by young scratch”, German committed his efforts to Hard to be a God. directors sometimes. Speaking about actors it is getting more The film was shot between the autumn of 2000 and August and more difficult to find them and when you finally succeed, it 2006: it even involved the construction of castles near Prague is sohard to tell them: «Look, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?! and on the sets at Lenfilm; the shooting took so long that some Instead of working your guts out, instead of putting in your soul of the actors died of old age; the post-production phase took and heart, you are just trying to hit fancy. You should be afraid over five years. German died on February 21st, 2013: the film of it and run away from it as fast as you can!» Film is a divine was completed by his wife and closest collaborator, Svetlana art, which is now overtaken by lazy people with empty eyes Karmalita, and by their son Aleksei A. German. which they are covering all the time with their hands. In my film there appears a short and fat actor who is trying to fly – and he is a brilliant actor. The man playing the part of the king is an actor from a far away small thatre for children, meanwhile he could glorify any thatre in the capital. Take a look at Alek- sandr Chutko – the very first moment I saw him I said, bring this man to me, he would make a perfect Don Reba. But the main problem is that a smart, well-educated spectator has become more and more rare, very hard to find and recognize.

soviet tanks into Prague. Those ideas that intelligentsia distin- INTERVIEW guished in the novel were also obvious to censorship people WITH SVETLANA who immediately associated the Czech events with landing of the “grey order” mentioned in the script. And on the 23rd of KARMALITA August of 1968, Aleksei was informed of the arrest of his movie script. Generally speaking August of 1968 terminated all the illusions of the so called “Sixtiers”.

1. The Strugatsky brothers wrote the book in 1964. 2. The narrative has a secondary importance in the film. Why did Aleksei German immediately want to adapt it The camera is like a subjective point of view floating to the screen? among characters. Like in paintings, there are simulta- The novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky immediately broke neous actions happening at the same time on different out with striking success. Readers saw in it something that grounds. The camera is always on the move… caught their fancy. The ready-made feature movie plot rich Starting from his second movie, Aleksei was getting more in clashes offered them diverse people characters typical of and more interested in depicting the world surrounding a Middle Ages and at the same time incredibly resembling real protagonist. He had always believed that the reasons and neighbors, friends, colleagues and distant acquaintances. And sources of deeds and emotions of a character could only be of course the issue of eternal fight of good and evil was not understood through depicting the environment and reality put aside by the authors. So everything in the novel seemed around him. Appreciation or rejection of real life and its very similar to common life of common people though full of intrinsic manifestations by a character, all those factors that romance and valor. mould his personality are no less important in the fiction story The intelligentsia of the 60s which by that time had tasted than the figure of a protagonist. Aleksei believed that camera and enjoyed the charm of “allusions” found in the novel the should be an artist’s tool of many places helping to reveal embodiment of their conception and understanding of social different aspects of one phenomenon. Indeed, if we distin- life in Soviet Union. The book was immediately sold out and guish different plotlines in the movie not only the protagonist began travelling from hand to hand. Don Rumata but also any other character would be presented As to Aleksei German, he belonged to that part of intelli- as a finished character sketch. Although being lost in the gentsia that still had illusions regarding the possibility of liberal movie sequence each character still has his own nature and and democratic way of development. Nevertheless, he had a his own place and value defined by the artist. fear of the return of terror that our country had experienced, The main plotline often recedes into the background especially in the 30s. All his life he feared that that time could permitting the audience just feel themselves part of the return revealing all its ugliness again. panhuman history. And in this sense German the reader and German the artist Several plotlines introduced by the author, none the less, had very much associated himself with the essence and thoughts to bring together the movie sequence and the cinema viewer implicated in the novel. – a man of another time, another civilization and another The movie script that had already been approved at “Lenfilm” understanding of the world. And the call for these plotlines was was all of a sudden ceased on the second day after entrance of satisfied by their quantity – just no more and no less. 3. Don Rumata is a nobleman who tries to save culture, art and intellectuals but fails and ends up as a lonely man. Did Aleksei German want to make an apoca- lyptic film? There exists another point of view on the ending of the film. As I have taken part in many discussions concerning the movie I should say that not always the end of it was understood as such despair. Some viewers paid attention at the fact that Rumata demanded to take off boots from slaves. Besides, the last sound is the trumpet produced by a slave that echoes Rumata’s musical improvisation. Harmony in the world is not achieved that is to say not yet achieved. Rumata’s friend is wearing hand-made wings behind his shoul- ders with which brainiacs learnt to fly. Obviously, he is not surrounded by like-minded persons, and this is not possible because of home, the woman whom he does not love yet but all is further a number of reasons. But at the other hand nobody has yet down the road…Being a historian he made a grave mistake by disproved the influence of a Personality on the world, and in this not checking what was happening with the “black order” and sense Don Rumata is definitely a Personality. thus being unaware that it was gaining ground for attack. And I am often being asked about the so called “light at the end when it came to finishing the story of Don Rumata it developed of the tunnel”. But “light at the end of the tunnel” is something that it was absolutely impossible for him to return to Earth and abstract, not real. Is not the process of living “in the tunnel” leave everything that had become so familiar and dear to him more interesting itself? Is not it more interesting to live in the not having paid for his mistake. His leave would mean betrayal time we are plunged in, in the real time of our life? of his friends and beloved people. The main ideas implicated in the novel transformed in the The end of the story reconsidered in this way had a strong impact director’s and scriptwriter’s mind when it came to the moment on the “back run” of the whole story and determined changes when Rumata was to return to Earth. Here in Arkanar he has during shootings. Those changes were concerned with a more lived a big part of his life. Here are his friends, his enemies, his detailed narration of Rumata’s relations with surrounding persons. used the word “extras” and forbade all the shooting team to use it, too. Instead, he called them foreground actors, second- ground actors, third-ground actors, etc. They were searched for in different offices, hospitals, outside in the streets, in theatres – everywhere. There often were open calls among them. Aleksei said that if a man without theatrical background could express the change of human emotion before camera it meant he was actor by nature; he merely had never realized that. Aleksei enthusias- tically co-operated with such actors.

6. Where were the settings built? What was the budget of the film? The main part of exterior shootings took place in Czech Repu- blic as there we can find a lot of castles – medieval construc- 4. Hard to be a God presents a new world with its own tions where we could create the necessary settings. And partly, civilization. Aleksei German Jr. talks about his father’s the shootings took place in Russia, in St-Petersburg where search for authenticity and attention to details… sceneries and settings were built from the ground up. Not a single scenery was created without Aleksei’s signature The sceneries were projected and built at Lenfilm studio. on drawings and sketches, no stuff could be involved behind Chambers, enormous corridors, passes, halls, 2-storey apart- the director’s back. Everything that is in picture is part of the ments – all of these were constructed not by small parts but director’s conception of the depicted time and world. If today I using big complexes. The scope and quality of work done are found myself in Rumata’s dwelling, God forbid, I could live there well seen on screen. as I am used to live in my house where everything is so familiar What concerns the budget of the movie, I do not understand to me and I very well know where I should sleep, eat, take a anything in this issue. Neither did Aleksei. It was only known bath, where all the necessary things are located. The creative that the movie was financed by private business. As far as it process was very complicated and the completed movie does was possible taking into account the complexity and scope require effort from viewers. On the other hand the question is of such work, Aleksei demanded to spend the “other people’s “What was the director to do with all this complexity?” Should money” very sparingly. he really have made the shootings and the movie simpler? This Financial issues were managed by two producers. One of would have been merely impossible as a real artist can in no them – Viktor Izvekov – is also a brilliant leader as well as our way deliberately limit himself in artistic devices. old friend and a person having excellent artistic taste. Aleksei’s first cooperative film with him was “”. 5. The faces of the crowd and the secondary charac- With the other producer – Rushan Nasibulin we came across ters are particularly striking and memorable. What in the very beginning of our work over the movie and chummed characteristics were searched for during casting? up very quickly. The basis of our friendly relations was commit- All the extras were selected by Aleksei. He himself never ment to creative work, which is to say to art. I think this very commitment united the people creating the movie and those who provided money to make that work possible. Actually the main difficulty in the beginning of work was the director’s insistence on high standards which he also required from everybody. But this kind of attitude did not inspire resis- tance in people. Mainly Aleksei always worked with same people creating all his films. At bottom we all were like family. Later, during shootings Aleksei’s health became poor. He continued shooting, editing and synchronizing his movie between stays in hospitals. When he stayed in a hospital we just waited for him. Or the shooting team was preparing for next stage of work.

7. How finished was the film when Aleksei German passed away? The movie was almost finished. Aleksei had finished editing, completed synchronization; the music to be used had been agreed with the composer Viktor Lebedev. Aleksei liked the music composed by Viktor very much. So the movie was ready for the last stage – mixing which means conver- gence of all film elements in the completed movie. But mixing was never completed by him. So this was the job that we did. I was more like a consultant as I knew very well all the director’s ideas and manner. And Aleksei German Jr. did this job as a brilliant professional. We preserved all as it was; we neither added anything nor cut anything out. We completed Aleksei’s work right in the way he had conceived it. And I vouch for it.

8. What would you like to say to the spectator that will discover the film? I would like to address to spectators: Hard to be God is a very simple to understand film. It is the best work by Alesha in my mind. But I have always valued each of his new films as a better one compared to previous ones. I would like to give the following advice: just watch the protagonist and try to share his life. (DIRECTOR)

Aleksei Yuryevich German was born in Leningrad in 1938. for debut works and experimental films at Lenfilm, a structure His father, Yuri P. German, the famous, award-winning “huma- to develop debut works by new directors which produced eight nistic” Soviet writer, a friend of director Vsevolod Emilevich feature-length films, as well as shorts and animated films. Meyerhold, convinced him to enrol in the Faculty of Theatre With the advent of the 1990s and the new political situa- Directing in Leningrad. After graduating, German collabo- tion, German worked on Khrustalyov, My Car!, released in rated with Georgy Tovstonogov, a key figure in Soviet theatre 1998, after being presented in competition at the Cannes Film in the 1950s and 60s. In 1964, the director began to work Festival. In that film, German came to the conclusion that after with Lenfilm, the oldest “studio” in the Soviet Union, which the horrors of the Stalin era, art was no longer possible in its became the cradle of auteur filmmaking. In 1967, he made his previous form. first film with Grigori L. Aronov, Sedmoy sputnik (The Seventh In 2000, the director, finally recognized as one of the great Companion). In 1971, German finished Proverka na dorogach masters of Russian filmmaking, and honoured with many awards, or Operacija “S novym godom” (Trial on the Road or Operation began to work on the epic project of Hard To Be a God, inspired by “Happy New Year”), inspired by a novel written by his father. the famous eponymous novel by the Strugatsky brothers, which The film, set during World War II, was immediately forbidden took thirteen years of hard work. In this work, German portrayed with the excuse that it distorted historical facts: it was not an entire civilization onscreen, reviewing the history of humanity released until 1985. In 1977, the director made Dvadtsat dney with ruthless precision and enormous compassion. bez voyny (),inspired by the novel by , the famous partyloyal writer who Aleksei German died on February 21st, 2013. The film defended the film before the leaders of the Central Committee HARD TO BE A GOD was completed by Svetlana and ensured its distribution. In 1984, German again worked on Karmalita and by their son Aleksei A. German. one of his father’s novels and made his most famous film, Moy drug Ivan Lapshin (My Friend Ivan Lapshin), set in the early 1930s. German’s portrayal of Soviet history irritated the Party and the film was immediately withdrawn from movie theatres. To survive, German wrote screenplays together with his wife FILMOGRAPHY Svetlana Karmalita, under her name alone. 1967 - Sedmoy sputnik () German’s parabola of life and creation was fraught with * co-direction with Grigori L. Aronov events that were as tough as they were dramatic, and 1971 - Proverka na dorogakh (Trial on the Road) which reduced his opportunities to personally develop his 1976 - Dvadtsat dney bez voyny (Twenty Days Without War) own projects. During the longest period of his inactivity as a 1984 - Moy drug Ivan Lapshin (My Friend Ivan Lapshin) director, in 1988 German and his companion in life and work 1998 - Khrustalyov, mashinu! (Khrustalyov, My Car!) Svetlana Karmalita did however create and direct the Studio, 2013 - Trudno byt’ bogom (Hard To Be a God) “The film Hard to be a God is unique not only because Programmed by US critic Scott Foundas at New York’s it portrays a whole artistic reality with incredible authenticity. Lincoln Center “In this age of Netflix, streaming video and Each detail shown in the film is developed with an all-or-nothing burn-on-demand DVDs, it can be all too tempting – comfor- approach. For example, the swords are made on the screen in ting, even – to think that there is no more cinematic terra exactly the same way they were made 700 years ago. The life incognita left to be discovered, that all of the treasures of of a medieval town is reconstructed with respect to every minor world moviemaking are simply lying in wait for us to dial part of it. The uniqueness does not even lie in fantastic expres- up in our living rooms. And yet there is the case of Aleksei sive faces of the cast – the search for actors covered all parts Guerman, who is indisputably one of the greatest filmma- of Euroasia. It is in this way the whole project was combined kers alive in the world today, but whose work has, until now, for an outstanding movie that holds artistic truth in each single been nearly impossible to see, little distributed outside of his element. This type of movie is not made anymore. And it is native Russia (with the exception of the French co-produc- quite doubtful that in the future someone might make it again.” tion Khrustalyov, My Car!) and wholly unavailable on any Aleksei German, Jr. home video format in the English-speaking world. To be fair, Guerman’s films – five features to date, all shot in stunning blackand-white and staged in complex, obsessively detailed tracking shots that rank with the best of Scorsese and De Palma – have long been championed by a small but enthu- siastic cult of admirers, including the programmers of the “A controversial figure for any regime, German soon began Film Society of Lincoln Center, who selected My Friend Ivan his battle against the censors and the bureaucracy of the Soviet Lapshin for the 1987 edition of New Directors/New Films filmmaking system, which continued throughout Brezhnev’s (somewhat ironically, in that it was already Guerman’s fourth rule. Not only because his films broke the rules and wilfully feature) and Khrustalyov for the 1998 New York Film Festival. neglected the practices of post-thaw Socialist realism, but (Both were savaged by their respective reviewers for The above all, because had his filmmaking, as an auteur, become New York Times.) But today, even the savvy art-film goer is successful, it would have disrupted existing theoretical, ethical, unlikely to have heard of Guerman, let alone seen any of his and stylistic structures and themes. His explosive influence had work – a dilemma for which this retrospective represents one to be stopped. In his 46-year career as a director, German was small corrective.” therefore allowed to make only five films and a half – the ‘half’ From the introduction to the 2012 Aleksei German was a debut codirectorship.” retrospective programmed by US critic Scott Foundas Marco Muller (artistic director, Rome Film Festival) at New York’s Lincoln Center MAIN CAST Leonid Yarmolnik - Don Rumata, Aleksandr Chutko - Don Reba, Hard To Be A God is set in the future on a planet bogged Yuriy Tsurilo - Don Pampa, down in the darkness of the Middle Ages. Now, just what Evgeniy Gerchakov - Budakh, memory, even a collective one, can German possibly be thin- Natalia Moteva - Ari king of here? In fact this film, destined to be his final, concludes the director’s long-standing inquiry, linking the grotesqueness of contemporary reality (which in the 20th century echoed MAIN CREW with the return of some of the Dark Ages’ worst nightmares Director: Aleksei German – the destruction of culture, the legal enshrinement of xeno- Screenwriters: Svetlana Karmalita, Aleksei German phobia, civil war) with an authentically photographed fictional Based on the novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky universe, re-created in this case according to the paintings of Cinematography: Vladimir Ilyin, Yuri Klimenko the Northern Renaissance instead of newsreels and photos… Production Design: Sergei Kokovkin, Georgi Kropachev, Enraged by the futility of the events going on around him and E. Zhukova the deaths of his friends and beloved, (the leading character) Costumes: Yekaterina Shapkaitz Rumata, whose powers seem godlike to the planet’s inhabi- Makeup: Olga Izvekova, N. Ratkevich tants, abandons the role of neutral observer and takes up arms, Music: V. Lebedev brandishing a sword of vengeance. The carnage he unleashes Sound: N. Astakhov on Arkanar is comparable to the Holocaust and Hiroshima: a Editors: Irina Gorokhovskaya, Maria Amosova reign of pure terror that cannot be adequately expressed in Story Editor: Yevgeny Pritzker either words or images. But what will change after this Sodom Production Manager: Marina Dovladbegyan and Gomorrah? Only one thing: God will cease to be God and, Produced by: Viktor Izvekov, Rushan Nasibulin having acknowledged the vile human nature within himself and Production Companies: Studio Sever (Russia), Russia 1 accepted it as punishment, will be exiled from his comfortable TV Channel (Russia) paradise. In the Strugatsky Brothers’ book, after the carnage Rumata flies back to Earth; in German’s film, he decides to remain in exile on the abominable Arkanar forever. TECHNICAL Russian critic Anton Dolin from his article “The INFORMATION Strange Case of Russian Maverick Aleksei German”, Year of Completion: 2013 published in FILM COMMENT (2012) Original Title: Trudno Byt Bogom Country: Russia Length: 170 Minutes Shooting Format: 35mm Screening Format: DCP, B&W www.capricci.fr