East of the West - Competition 2016 / Kollektor / Russia 2016
An unscrupulous debt collector who is a prominent member of the Moscow elite has just a few hours to refute an accusation that might cost him his job and his life. A giddy ride to moral depths from which there is no return – a bravura debut which owes its strength to the performance of its sole actor.
Artur is a cold-blooded, cynical, exceptionally successful debt collector. He doesn’t lurk in dark alleys waiting for his victims; he systematically harasses them over the phone until they eventually pay up. In addition to the hefty income that ranks him among Moscow’s elite, he’s also earned a reputation that has made him a few enemies. Then one evening he himself becomes the victim: a compromising video in which he appears goes viral and he has just a few hours to prove his innocence. Focusing on the fickleness of fame and favor, the movie employs an extremely compact and powerful form to reveal the sad truth about the self-centered tendencies of contemporary society. Debuting director Alexei Krasovskiy resolved to make a movie starring a single actor (Konstantin Khabenskiy) that, moreover, takes place in a single (office) location. Regardless of the restricted conditions, the result is an exceptionally dynamic thriller in which career, love, and life are at stake.
Kamila Dolotina
74 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Alexei Krasovskiy
/ Screenplay Alexei Krasovskiy
/ Dir. of Photography Denis Firstov
/ Music Dmitry Selipanov
/ Editor Artyom Baryshnikov
/ Producer Dmitry Ruzhentsev, Georgy Shabanov, Eduard Iloyan
/ Production Paprika Production
/ Coproduction All Media Company
/ Cast Konstantin Khabenskiy
/ Sales All Media Company
Alexei Krasovskiy (b. 1971, Gorky, USSR) graduated in medicine. With the new millennium he also decided to become a screenwriter, and his television projects came together in a gutsy story with audience potential. A carefully crafted script also characterizes his first directing effort, Collector (2016). The story came to the author during his own gastroscopy procedure when the surgeon took a telephone call, thereby risking the director’s life. The outlines of a character thus began to emerge who blackmails his victims by phone. This ambitious debut, whose ability to engage rests solely on the gripping performance of its lone actor, indicates that Russian cinema is beginning to experiment successfully in the area of mainstream moviemaking.
All Media Company
Gruzinskiy Val st., 11, bld.3, office 5, 123056, Moscow
Russia
E-mail: [email protected]
Alexei Krasovskiy
Film Director
Dmitry Ruzhentsev
Producer
Xenia Buravsky
Actress
Georgy Shabanov
Producer
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