The Lenfilm film studio is filming a new psychological thriller, Monochrome, in St. Petersburg. The director of the film was Olga Gorodetskaya. The film is being created with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Wink online cinema.
In the story, journalist Claudia Novak (Elizabeth Shakira) is in crisis. After publishing one of her articles, she survived the attack and decided to leave the profession because she felt powerless in the fight against injustice. Soon she is contacted by an acquaintance from the investigative committee, Pavel Smirnov (Egor Zakhovaev), who asks her to write material about a possible serial maniac. According to Smirnov, this may spur the investigative authorities to admit that a maniac is operating in the city. In different places in St. Petersburg, not far from sewer discharges, three female corpses of varying degrees of preservation surfaced almost simultaneously. Their bones have strange jagged edges from a sawing object. Claudia becomes involved in this case because she vaguely senses a connection between it and the long-ago murder of her friend – in all cases, the criminal braided the victims’ hair.
“Initially, I came for the episodic role of Claudia’s mother, but during the audition I was offered the main role,” said actress Elizaveta Shakira. — My heroine is an investigative journalist. We found out that in Russia it is often women who engage in this profession. This is a very dangerous profession. Claudia is at the beginning of this journey. She is principled, fights for justice, for truth, for honesty. I prepared for this role for a long time; among my friends and acquaintances there are journalists with whom I communicated and whose work I observed. Any profession has its own nuances – and this is the most interesting thing. Since my heroine works with material, I was interested in understanding these details: how the material is collected, how a journalist can sit at home and process everything. This “everyday life” helped a lot in creating the image. We have difficult filming ahead, I have to escape the flow of water in the sewer and swim underwater with my eyes open.”
A large sewer set was built especially for the dangerous water scenes on the outskirts of the city. This structure was designed so that the audience would be scared to watch the characters, but for the actors the filming would be as safe as possible. “We spent a long time developing this complex set. In it we use 4 tanks of water for spillway. Moreover, you can reset it either simultaneously or one by one. All water goes into a waterproof tank that can hold up to 20 tons. The decoration is made of metal with the addition of concrete blocks and plywood. The filming also involved the streets of St. Petersburg, a crematorium, abandoned buildings of the city and locations in the Leningrad region,” said producer Sergei Kasatov.
“This is a large-scale art project. This is exactly what Lenfilm has always been famous for. The complex genre of psychological thriller – not many films in this genre were shot at the studio, and we hope that this film will work and that the audience will appreciate it. A story where, on the one hand, detective intrigue is very well intertwined with the notorious question “who is the killer?”, and it keeps you in suspense until the last minute. On the other hand, there is a serious intellectual load and a full-fledged author’s statement,” said Fyodor Shcherbakov, general director of the Lenfilm film studio.
The film also stars Alexei Serebryakov, Stasya Venkova, Dmitry Lysenkov, Andrey Urgant, Vladimir Mishukov, Alexandra Kiseleva, Sergei Volkov, Anatoly Antsiferov, Sergei Agafonov, Anvar Libabov, Vladimir Litvinov, Alexander Pashutin, Yuri Galtsev, Kamila Voikova, Larisa Udovichenko, Roman Madyanov, Anatoly Kondyubov, Dmitry Khasanov and many others.
“The casting lasted from February to July. The actors were selected based on the tasks required for the type of characters written. The script was written specifically for St. Petersburg and contains in the plot nuances that are characteristic of this city and its atmosphere. In modern times it is difficult to make a classic thriller. Under the classic thriller, many people remember Hitchcock. His work and ideas were in tune with the time in which he filmed. Now it’s difficult to find a pure genre in cinema; rather, it’s always some kind of author’s interpretation of finds from the past,” said Olga Gorodetskaya.
Source: Rosbalt
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