BBC Four: You’ve said this is an "accidental film". Why?
Viktor Kossakovsky: I was busy on another project in Germany and waiting for money. I took holidays for two or three days and went home and saw something interesting from my window. I started shooting just for me without any idea to make a film. I was then in Germany for two more months and came back to St Petersburg for a few days. Again, something was wrong on the street and I shot it. After a year I realised I had ten hours of good material. This is why it was absolutely accidental. I just shot whenever I was home. Not one single shot was staged. The film’s been in a few festivals and people keep telling me they don’t believe it is a documentary. I have never asked people to do something or say something. But unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, all of my films look like fiction.
BBC Four: Watching the roadworks in the film becomes an amusing experience. Did you find it funny?
VK: Leonardo da Vinci wrote that the artist has a power to see things either as beautiful or terrible, depending on what he wants. But you can also say that everything depends on the perception of the audience. All my life I wanted to make comedy but all my films have been very sad. I don’t know why. With this I wanted to find something beautiful and funny. I first saw the smoke and the red asphalt and for me it was beautiful. And some moments I thought were really funny, like when the dog is waiting. For the first time I am happy because in many countries people really laughed. It was really successful with audiences.
BBC Four: So it’s not sad a film for you?
VK: I hope it’s not. But all my films before, people said they were too sad. I am a realist. I remember when I was 17 years old. I was on Nevsky Prospect [in St Petersburg] and went to a cobbler on the street to fix my shoes. When I went to collect them the next day he said to me, "Why don’t you like yourself so much?" I said, "What?" He said, "I saw your shoes and I can tell that you don’t like yourself very much." "How is that possible?" I said. He started to explain, "For example, your foot is very big, a 46. But you don’t like it. You always buy size 44 because you are ashamed to have such big feet." He then continued to tell me stories about myself even thought he didn’t know me, he’d only seen my shoes. And he was absolutely right. He saw everything about my life. He became my friend and after a few days I realised that actually he was quite stupid. You couldn’t talk to him about politics or anything else but he was really a professional in his area. He was a genius. He could tell everything about someone just by looking at their shoes. This is the same principal as all my films. In any drop of water you can see the whole world if you want to. In any piece of asphalt you can see all of Russia I would say. That’s why I used the phrase from Gogol: "There are two misfortunes in Russia – roads and fools." That’s easy to say if you’re a writer. But of you’re a documentary maker you have to show that.
BBC Four: Even though it was "accidental film" it still feels very much like your other films in style.
VK: It’s always a big compromise. To be honest I am very conservative in cinema. For example, to me the best films are without music but I know that people like to see films with music. Since Shakespeare I would say people want stories, they want to know what happens next. I would say that’s bad for cinema but I can’t change it! I like it if people want to see my films, but if I made films just for myself they would be longer, without music. But unfortunately you have to live in the present.
BBC Four: Finally, what condition is the road outside of your window in now?
VK: It’s the same story. My son always said, "You have to finish your film immediately because when you finish it the road will be fixed and will never break." I finished the film and immediately went to Amsterdam. In the morning I saw from my window in Amsterdam that the road was broken. The same in Italy and New York. I then went home and the story continues. I could make a docu-soap!
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