Written and Directed by Yury Vorobev
Politicians, big actors, high-rank footballers and other significant figures keep insisting to give voice to the voiceless. It is finally happening. Whoo-hoo! A self-deprecatory portrait of an endangered pickpocket and his financial struggles resulting frоm the third UK quarantine.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH Yury
Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.
Born in St. Petersburg. Brewed in Moscow. Matured in London. Radiohead. Earlybird. Storyteller. Loving son. I should probably stop here to make "tell us a bit about yourself" more intriguing. Trust me you don't really want to know much more about my "intergalactic" filming adventure. Especially taking into account how many Ted Talks to catch up with are out there. So please be sensible with your time.
I started off my way to filmmaking by developing intros for various broadcast programmes at Channel 5 Russia. It was fun mostly because after hours we used to play a lot of Call Duty. Ah, these were the times!
As a firm believer in storytelling I made my way to the adland hoping to create more idea focused content. But the more I worked on TV commercials and branded films the more I craved them to be less adverts but more like films. Honestly, it wasn't going anywhere. I struggled. People who worked with me did too. But controversial enough, I'm very much glad that I did. Because that was a wake up call for me. I suddenly realised that filmmaking is the thing I mostly enjoy doing, no matter what. From writing stories to working with actors, location scouting, going the extra mile one the set and so on and so forth. I just love every bit of it. Even when everything goes nuts I love it.
Since 2012 I have settled in London. I studied filmmaking in Raindance School while constantly upgrading my script writing skills at different online courses. In 2020 I wrote and shot a debut short film "Stalin Unlimited".
How did lockdown affect your creativity and inspiration to make art?
Which one, the 1st, 2nd or 3rd?
The first lockdown was a perfect spark to look at things we all used to from a completely different perspective. As it turns out we take so many things for granted and all of sudden they just feel so unique. Everything ignited from the fact that my beloved take away cup of coffee was taken away from me and as a result had become the most carved thing over the pandemic. I have never thought that I'd be dreaming about such a basic thing. But I did. Mostly in the mornings. And then I got bored dreaming about the coffee. That was my starting point. Boom!
From coffee to tofey. I mean trophy.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
Turning my living room into some sort of shooting studio was an overambitious idea to say the least. A massive challenge as well. I had to live in that mess for over a month convincing my wife that it was worth doing it. Not to mention that I have an OCD to keep everything nice and tidy at home. It was tough. But on the plus side, my wife has not divorced me. Yet. And I have not gone into a mental institution. Yet.
Any hacks or tips for making a short film?
I'd say just better to make a bad one rather than not to make it at all. Filmmaking is such a never ending learning curve. Obviously making mistakes is a big part of it. So you'd better make them as much as you can in the beginning. Sounds a bit like I encourage people to make shitty films though. Weirdly enough it makes sense though.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
It wasn't too easy to be honest. I had to do loads of parts by myself. I was a writer/director, set designer, editor/colourist and even had to do some clean up myself. Almost a one man band. A big lesson for me is that I will never ever do everything myself again. If you want to come in one piece afterwards it's highly not recommended. Just focus on your part and let the others do the rest.
What are you working on now?
I'm writing a new short which I'm planning to film in August.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I recently opened to myself the films of Christian Petzold. 'Barbara' in particular has quite resonated with me. It's a beautiful drama film that reflects on choices, dilemmas and sacrifice.