Remote access

Russia, 2004

Studio named after Gorkiy, «KinoPROBA» Studio»

85 min.

Drama

The subject of this film is simple: a boy becomes acquainted with a girl over the phone, and a phone romance begins. However, the heroes, being afraid of disappointment and possible disillusionment, hesitate before making the decision to meet in person...

«Remote Access» is a computer term, and at the same time this title has a serious second meaning. Svetlana Proskurina, producer, is usually fond of «double meaning» terms. As she says, the «remote access» is an image of our «permanent lack of personification and striving for some contact that we try to sense». «From the other side», — Proskurina says, — «these words are just as common and natural as phone, radio, etc., but they give some assistance in understanding what awaits you, and what kind of interaction will take place in this movie».

The producer Svetlana Proskurina refuses to determine the genre of her new film herself. Possibly, it can be said that it is a story of «phone» romance: two persons call each other and take each other for someone else. Two well known actors played the parts in «Remote Access», Elena Rufanova and Vladimir Ilyin. Being adherent to her established tradition, Proskurina invited non-professional actors, debutants, to play leading parts: Dana Aghisheva (daughter of Odelsh Aghishev, a well-known screenwriter) and Alexander Plaksin.

Svetlana Proskurina: «In contrast to any other movie, we, me, and sound producer Vladimir Persov, tried to use in «Remote Access» a recording system absolutely new for us. We invented heaps of new things. For example, two partners speak in one of the scenes. We record one of them with one sound settings, and we record the second with quite another. And when we combine both settings, I add some noises to both channels, and the scene, strange as it may seem, becomes more elastic and dramatic. I was stunned: when the work was finished already I read a book of Canadian pianist Glen Gould telling that when he was busy with radio programs he tried to do the same combining several settings within one subject. Such editing provides for a startling effect. In general, it is remarkable when you realize unexpectedly that a thing you have invented was tried by someone at another time in quite another country, for quite another purpose and in another profession».

Prizes and Awards

2004

Participant in the competition program of the International Film Festival in Venice

CREW

• Svetlana Proskurina (Script, Film director)
• Alexander Burov (Photography director)
• Serghei Yurizditsky (Photography director)
• Andrey Sigle (Composer)
• Olga Nikolaeva (Art Director, Costume designer)
• Yury Obukhov (Co-producer)

CAST

• Dana Aghisheva
• Elena Rufanova
• Vladimir Ilyin
• Fyodor Lavrov