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An interview with Andrey Iskanov.
It gives me great pleasure to present an exclusive interview with Russian film maker Andrey Iskanov, whose films Nails, Visions of Suffering and Philosophy of a Knife are soon to be unleashed upon the western world by Unearthed films. This is his very first interview outside Russia, I’m very grateful to Andrey for taking the time to express himself so eloquently in a language that is far from his mother tongue.
Welcome Andrey, Could you tell us about your background, how you got involved with film making?
Thanks. It seemed to me I was five years or less when I laid hands on the book of Soviet critical reviewer Yuriy Hanyutin's ”The Reality of the Fantastic World“. In it’s critical aspect it told about western horror and sci-fi movies. I had not read books in my five years, but liked to look at all these stills and posters from classic to present day films. I always count my horror biographies from this point. At the end of 80’s I began to be engaged in photography. I started to be engaged in photography because you could not shoot horror movies in USSR. Never! For those of you that do not know, for watching such films as Xtro and Evil Dead, people were sent to prisons here. There are no other films except films about our favourite government and about our hard working people! All these awful horrors movies are vestiges of the perverted West and dirty propagation of violence! Fuck it! I really hate it. One of my the first horror movies was Jaws and I watched it 38 times during 38 days. Sounds weird? I began my own experiences in horror genre in 1988. By the end of the 90s, I was already a known model/fashion photographer in the Russian Far East. But more often I did those works which were all rejected here. I did very gloomy, gore and dark things instead of socialist art photography for which you always get the job and money in Russia. Yes, here still most of all appreciate social art photos. In same time I filmed my own horror photo films. I did all with set, wardrobe, screenplay, storyboard, the suits, special effects, make-up etc. Not any cheap shit! These are the real films but only shot by a photo camera. Some thousand photos in each photofilm! If put it in video and to add a sound and great music you can see them as almost real films instead of cheap journal crap photo films. I hope, sometime I shall make it. I always wanted to make films, but in it this country you don't get many chances with it. Besides that, I am also the author who has written a few huge horror/neo-gothic novels, such as Odour of blood and many short horror stories.
Is there a market for horror/surreal/independent films in your homeland?
There is not any good market. There are only some not numerous illiterate fans which multiply piracy DVD and VHS with horror films and make money selling piracy copies of film’s favourite directors. For many in Russia, the phrase ”I like horror movies “ still sounds as ” I am the sick pervert and I love these sick films for maniacs with murders and guts... because I am the same, a sick crazy motherfucker freak“ ! There are no independent films here because it would be necessary to be at fucking war and fight each day for the right make such films in Russia. There are amateurs which make very idiotic amateur video and name it as ” horror movies “ but as such I can not name them as independent directors. It is the country where the the most popular genres are stupid comedies and action.
Is censorship still a problem in Russia? What restrictions are there on what you can and can't show in your films?
Yes, it is a problem here. The main restriction is that you just will be not not given any money for your movie when you tell that you want to make horror. And most likely any film-company will not talk to you after that any more. If you already have film it is very bad if there is drugs use. It too is impossible to portray. There is not any very realistic gore and violence in movies made in Russia! You can do small erotic scenes, you can do some violence in action style. But not more! With my last movie I can have very big problems in this country. You quietly can march on streets of Moscow with black banners in hands and shout: ”Kill the Jewish bastards! Kill the black bastards! Save Russia!“ but if you have made convincing film about violence you must wait for the real problems. It`s very strange!
So in trying to make your films in that environment are you taking personal risks? have you had to omit anything from your work to avoid trouble?
Until Philosophy of a knife, nothing has been deleted from my films. It's really good or bad, i don't know. I simply did not follow instructions and rules which are dictated here. The company which has released my film in Russia, wanted me to produce a voice over monologue for the hero in Nails, which would explain the spectator an event in film. I did not think that my spectators are so stupid that they need such commentary. I have not made it. It seems that I was asked to correct something else in Nails, it is already difficult to remember all. With my film VoS, all was even easier. When people in the distribution companies in Πξρρθ looked at it, they simply started to ignore me. To release such a film in Russia, from their point of view, was hereby criminal. Everyone who saw this film then refused to speak about it and it was similar to damnation. The company which has released Nails in Russia and were beginning to advertise VoS, has stopped any mention of this film and of ALL my projects in general. I have not received any offers concerning making changes in VoS, this film was simply subjected to a full interdiction! And it has not been screened in one film festival in Russia! It seems, this film has buried my career in Russia. : )
The philosophy of a knife became the most graphic film which I have made. I still have not removed from it any scene which can be dangerous to me so this film still carries in itself threat. But I can tell that I have not shot one scene which would be absolutely dangerous to film in Russia. I shot one scene where Japanese make one of the patients to force syphilis on a healthy Russian girl to learn how this illness is transferred. I wanted to make it as disgusting as possible. Mpenis a little a red paint, fake blood and then... I Hope you guess? But it would be still even worse than you can imagine yourselves. I do not want to sound obscene, but I think that this is something nobody has done in a film. I never made anything that it is possible to watch together with your mum or the beloved, but it was valid for me. I have told my friend: "Slava, you have thought up an excellent piece! But unfortuny friend and assistant on all my previous films, Slava Iliyasov, has offered me a completely crazy idea; it would look absolutely disgustingly and naturalistic. In the style of some shots of the Swedish film Thriller: a cruel picture. The essence of the idea was, what before filming to enter into a ately I can not show it. If in the film there will be such scene of violence and a penis - I will be sent in prison for pornography! And the film will most likely be destroyed. We unfortunately live in Russia, fuck it! " So I have not finished shooting that which my friend for this scene has thought up. It is not present in my film. If I lived in America or any other country where there are no such idiotic laws as here, I would make it as he has thought up. And nevertheless, most likely, my film will be edited for rent in USA. I do not know as with you, in Great Britain, how affairs with such films are. I heard that you too have problems with severe films. And I should tell, that I do not believe that the violence on the screen engenders murderers in real life. Do not forgot that in the USSR ALL films with violence and cruelty were forbidden. ALL films were completely sterilized! The western cinema was forbidden except for those films which our party and the government approved. Also for what? It has not protected us from occurrence of the most terrible serial murderers and cannibals known today in the world! Their names already became nominal. Evil comes not from violence films, but from the hearts of violent people.
In your film, Nails, the main character takes the art of trepanning (perforating one's skull) to a new level by hammering 6 inch nails into his head. What was the inspiration behind this story?
I thought up the plot in a few minutes because on the evening I had awful headaches. I also read about cases where people drilled into their a skull using an electric drill and drove into their skull nails, and even stretched an iron wire through their own brain. The case was when the person removed attacks of a headache by stretching an iron wire through the brain, has also formed a basis for my plot. The magazine with the article which you see in the film is a fake which we have made for the film, such an article does not exist. Some with whom I'm familiar who studied as doctors or professional militarians, saw people who had driven in nails in the skull, or who had nails embedded in their skulls. I know that there are such people in the world, periodically there are accidents or attempts of murder or auto-trepanation. Frequently people would drill the skull for to release the consciousness or for other reasons. I can not tell precisely what exactly pushes them to do it. One of my favourite films is Tetsuo: the Iron Man by Shinya Tsukamoto. And it is possible that in my film there are very similar motives. So Nails, it's also cyberpunk. I remember that I had written the script over two days. It was certainly not a big script because I didn't want to make big film for small money. I remember also that we wanted to make one more ending for film. We have not made it because we did not have time. When the camera leaves on behalf of the hero in psychiatric clinic in the end, it should show the next chamber where the person who's eyes are cut out and he violently shouts: ”I too saw! I too saw!“ And then, hospital attendants run in and start to beat him with police clubs. By the way, in a scene when the hero's the cellular telephone calls - you can hear a ringtone melody from British film Xtro on his phone!
Surrealism plays an important role in your films. Do you think that to create surrealist art you need to have the ability to view life in an unique way?
Certainly. You should have very special point of view. You should see many things differently than others. I think that weird cinema like horror or fantasy or sci-fi gives creativity more opportunities than any other art. I also have made many surrealistic works and as the artist and the photographer, some of them you can see in my films as pictures on wall etc. Many think, that surrealism is something abstract and completely not clear to simple people. That it is delirium on a canvas or in film. It not so. Surrealism is first of all work with subconsciousness. You liberate images from your own subconscious. All that is worthy to release, should be released to freedom. And it is not too important, that if in your heads some angels or some demons, if they both serve to some form of art. The surrealism happens in the form of the protest and the form of self-expression and the form of self-knowledge, but would be very rare that it is the form of self-enrichment. All that is so pleasant to spectators in horror, these are subconscious images. All these creepy figures, weird sounds, strange movements and grisly atmosphere, if it is made correctly it finds a direct key to your imagination. The message is sent and delivered to the address. For me, surrealism is first of all freedom for imagination. You quietly can work with own subconscious and until then while you do not try to exploited it, your images will be searching for places in the minds of some other people.
Monochrome is an incredibly expressive medium, (Eraserhead, Tetsuo and Pi spring to mind as examples) but few risk filming with it. What is it about working with black and white that appeals to you?
I studied photography on a black-and-white monochrome material. It is easier for me to work with monochrome, than with color and it always gives to film a special very gloomy, dark mood. I also very much like film noire, all these films had very unique atmosphere. In Nails and VoS there are big scenes in black&white. In these films I would use this reception that way to emphasize a reality and unreality of an event. In Philosophy of a knife all parts which occur in Unit 731 I did in black&white and is stylised in old vintage footage. A modern part of film, for example the interview with the old witness which much was communicated with the Japanese doctors from 731 and personally knew many of them, it stays in color.
Visions of Suffering is an incredible, surrealistic mind-fuck of a movie. Was it difficult to translate your ideas into images? How long did it take to make?
Two months working on the basic filming and two more or three months on editing and visual effects. For me there were never was problems with imagination, but always there were problems with money. :) Unfortunately, I had to refuse the several ideas conceived by me. There were many problems with film; with people, with digital effects and I was compelled to say - Well, we should do without these scenes... My films would be better with a bigger budget, certainly. Very frequently we began work on filming in the afternoon and finished the next morning. Someone went to bed and someone was going to other work. For example, the scene where the girl is beaten in a night club. By the way, for this scene I send my greetings to film Tokio fist! Hi, mr. Tsukamoto! Absurd cruelty, destruction of flesh... It Seems, in all that I do there are these themes? In this film are a lot of images which really came from the darkest side of dreams. How many films based on dreams do you know? In any case, I certainly hope, that my film will be the first in your list. But I also could not refuse a scene of beating the girl even in film based on the real night nightmares. Some spectators are surprised - why she does not fall after such strong impacts? I answer: "In the first place , her heroine would take drugs to not feel pain, and in the second, its just a movie." Sometimes it would be necessary to not sleep at night to make some shots for my film. For example, it was very difficult to shoot in a night club. We came there in the evening, and had to wait till the morning when visitors will leave to have an opportunity to shoot there some short scenes. Besides this I was responsible for some show in the club, work on which enabled us to finish shooting there some scenes. It really was a very small night club, there we had no place even to sit. I stand to stay long in a hall full of people from with deafening music and an awful stroboscope. Therefore we have carried out the most part of night in the kitchen of this club together with staff. It seems, never before did a night last so tiresomely long for me as then. There it was close to being in a tomb and music roared so I could not hear even myself. All night we waited when the opportunity to finish shooting our scene, without any chance to fall asleep will be given us. It was rather tiresome.
Do you think that living in the far east of Russia, where opportunities are limited, has driven you to be more creative and determined to express yourself or restricted what you have been able to achieve?
My limited opportunities give me confidence that basically, I can make films anywhere and with the help of everything. You certainly know, it is possible to photograph even with a can if you have the desire and if you don't have a Nikon or Canon. The photo made by a can most likely will be quite not bad, but the photo made by expensive professional camera will look one thousand times better. And with films. I have made them as I have made, but could make much better if I had opportunities instead of restrictions. Certainly, when at you have so many restrictions you start to experiment, try the many different things. Sometimes it works well, but more often it works not so well. It gives you wide experience and good practical skills. You become the professional in such areas which few even reflect. It reminds me of the story of one my old friend who was compelled to undertake work of the watchman at a bee farm deep in a wood. After a time he began to feel the torment of strong famine, but it appeared that except for salt, he does not have any products. After some hungry days, he started hunting for on poisonous snakes which were found around of his house in the wood. He has learned to catch them with his naked hands because of his great hunger he lost the feelings of fear. Moreover, as he did not have oil, snakes burned on the fire when he tried to roast them and turned to something similar to jelly. The same result turned out when he tried to boil them. Then he has decided to not fry and to not boil them and eats them salted and raw. So he also has made. At him the bag was salt and with it would not be exact any problems. The taste of raw snakes appeared similar to a herring. He had been rescued. What do I want to tell? I want to tell, that my friend became a very desperate and skilled person in that wood. He has learned to hunt poisonous Amur snakes and eats them raw. Not everyone would be able today, I think. BUT... Better in that wood house he would have a full refrigerator of foods.
Your latest film, Philosophy of a Knife, is your take on the nefarious history of Unit 731, the notorious Japanese secret military medical unit that was the subject matter for the infamous Men behind The Sun. Why have you chosen to cover an actual historic event and what do you think you can bring to the story?
I do not want anything to bring to the story, I want to show the story. Unit 731 existed near to the city where I live. It only some 60-70 kilometres from here. I think, no other directors in the world does not live as close to it as I. I for a long time knew about its history and after Visions of Suffering I very much wanted to make some very realistic film. A truthful history, truthful as it is possible to show today. So it has turned out, that I could learn the truth first-hand, from the person which lived through WW2 in Kharbin and even studied in medical institute together with one of Japanese doctors which worked in Unit 731! And also he the military translator on Khabarovsk was judicial process against doctors from Unit 731, due to his translations of materials of Japanese the world has learned the most part of secrets of Unit 731. He was present at interrogations of these Japanese doctors and all materials translated to him are known today as materials of the Khabarovsk process. These materials are used in main part of Men Behind the Sun, as I know. By the way, I did not see film Men behind the sun when I started to shoot my film. Film Men Behind the Sun tells about Chinese victims , but there also was a lot of Russian. Therefore, my film is about Russian people in Unit 731. Man Behind the Sun contains some scenes which never was actually, for example a scene with a cat and rats! Anything similar in my film is not present. All that I show in my film, is based on that that it is known authentically or about what is uneasy to guess knowing the facts. And my film is not anti Japanese. I tried to make all so authentic as far as possible and to show all facts why Unit 731 was created, that it was engaged and for the sake of what and then all was finished. Certainly Japanese doctors not were sick freaks as it is shown in Men behind the sun. Those who knew them personally absolutely do not agree with that. Unit 731 was a military institution for studying the simplicity and perfection of death in any forms and kinds which can be used in war!. Kill or will kill you for refusal to carry out the order. You do it not for the sake of yourself personally, but for the sake of the rescue of Japan during war! You bring in a victim who is an enemy of Japan, for the sake of rescue of the whole nation! At that time for the Japanese, they were not simply words. What to understand, why someone does such things it is necessary to know, in what these people believed. Here all matters. Belief, concepts about honor and a duty, patriotism, humanity and weight of other things. Only knowing all accessible information and the taking of a neutral position actually it is possible to try to make a truthful film about Unit 731. If I would not make this film now, then to do it already had no such sense. All witnesses are already very old also the majority of them have already died and in some years there will be already nobody from those who could tell to us the truth about this darkest secret in WW2 history. Now it’s 2006, and to shoot such a movie was very difficult. It was very difficult for me to make it because it also very violent film, graphically and extreme violent. Repellent violent, but its true. It is film about a pain and death, what I can tell? And I tried to show it all totally convincingly. The realistic historical film is most difficult that I have filmed in my life. But also the most valuable to me.
What are your plans after Philosophy of a Knife is finished?
I would like to tell you here, that I shall leave to have a rest to Bahamas or to the Hawaiian islands, and can be for one month to Paris or Rome. But much to my regret it is not the truth. The truth is that I most likely shall start to shoot new film. At present we work on the script of new film. I have many good ideas. I like different sub-genres in horror and sci-fi. I very much would want to work together with the English and American actors and models. I would like to make something very dark and beautiful and violent, for example in style of Giallo which I very much love. I love beauty and darkness in one cruel cinema mix!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us Andrey. I know many people are looking forward to the release of your DVDs and I'm sure they will be very well received. Good luck with your future projects.
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