Are we alive? Director Ildar Yagafarov on the future of Tatar cinema

The film “Isәnmesez?” (“Are You Alive?”) Won the President of Tatarstan Prize “For Humanism in Cinema” at the Kazan Muslim Film Festival.

At the premiere, the audience made a full house. Leaving the hall, they excitedly argued about a picture about an ordinary Tatar family.

One of the relatives is diagnosed with cancer. Only one person in the family responds to a request for help – doctor Tamerlan Islamov. To pay for the operation to the patient abroad, he sells his house and because of this he loses his wife and son. When all the doctors refuse to help, Tamerlan Midkhatovich himself operates on his relative. He dies on the operating table, and the surgeon goes to prison. Relatives help him to return to his former life, all together they buy out the house sold to him.

Is the cinema capable of uniting people, preserving the Tatar culture, language, the film director Ildar Yagafarov said in an interview with AiF-Kazan.

Olga Lyubimova, “AiF-Kazan”: Ildar Rashitovich, why the greeting “Isunmesez!” in your film turned into the question “Are you alive?” The heroes of the picture, the Islamic family, put a special meaning into it, trying to understand whether they have remained human.

Ildar Yagafarov: Of course, this is a cinematic notion. Usually “Isәnmesez!” simply means “hello.” “Isam” – in Tatar means “alive”. And the scriptwriter Mansur Gilyazov and I thought, why not play with this word. This is how the name “Are you alive?”

The main character, doctor Tamerlan Islamov, is the only one in the family who decides to help a relative in trouble. Someone, after watching the film, will shout that he is an idiot. But we have to think about who the idiot is this doctor or us? After all, in fact, we all have to do as he did. But we don’t do that. We have a bunch of not just complexes, but some special rules that this should not be done.

But why can’t all the money collected at the wedding be given to the patient? Why is it impossible to call, bypass all relatives so that they can help a relative in trouble? Why does everyone think only of himself, and a person is needed only when there is benefit from him?

– You are the director of the first Tatar feature film “Kuktau” – about the fate of two lonely people. Does the new painting continue this theme?

– Absolutely not. These films are strikingly different in plot, scale of filming, and dynamics. If there were only 600 shots in “Kuktau”, then in “Isunmesez?” about 2500 frames, 74 scenes.

My first picture has both fans and critics. This is fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. In the new film, I took all this into account and tried to make sure that people see their native Tatar cinema.

– What is national cinema?

– Recently participating in Mari El in the filming of a Mari film, I was mesmerized by the language, the very atmosphere of the filming. I realized that only a Mari can make such a film. And it’s not even about the plot. The director knows the micro-nuances of the customs of his people. How people dress, what food they eat, how they take their children to school in the morning, what they talk about, even how they swear. All this is absorbed throughout your life.

You see all this from childhood in your family, in the families of relatives, remember it and then transfer it to the screen. And if it works out, people say: “Wow, this is really us!”

I tried to shoot a picture about my people, speaking with the audience in their language. Actors from Nizhnekamsk, Almetyevsk theaters – seven or eight theaters of the republic played in our film. We wanted the whole of Tatarstan to take part in it.

Even before the premiere of the film at the Kazan Muslim Film Festival, there were offers to show it in other regions. People want to see our picture, to understand the identity of the Tatars: who they are, how they live.

This picture also contains the theme of interaction between the Kryashens and the Tatars. This is interesting too. In my opinion, the Kryashens are the same Tatars, just with a different religion. We need to unite, not disunite.

– The People’s Artist of Azerbaijan Vadidi Hasanov, having watched “Isunmesez?”, Concluded that the family rallied because Tamerlane sacrificed himself. What else can unite people?

– The worst thing is that people most often unite when they have a common enemy. Unfortunately, this is how man is made. In ordinary life, he does not want to unite. Everyone has their own opinion on everything …

Probably, it is impossible to make everyone love each other. But we must try, at least, to understand. We are a huge country where people of different nationalities live. Each nation has its own history, language, identity. It is necessary to create conditions for all this to flourish.

We have opportunities in the republic for the development of different national cultures. There are schools where they study the Chuvash, Mari and other languages, there are many national festivals, exhibitions, holidays.

– What is national cinema?

– Recently participating in Mari El in the filming of a Mari film, I was mesmerized by the language, the very atmosphere of the filming. I realized that only a Mari can make such a film. And it’s not even about the plot. The director knows the micro-nuances of the customs of his people. How people dress, what food they eat, how they take their children to school in the morning, what they talk about, even how they swear. All this is absorbed throughout your life.

You see all this from childhood in your family, in the families of relatives, remember it and then transfer it to the screen. And if it works out, people say: “Wow, this is really us!”

I tried to shoot a picture about my people, speaking with the audience in their language. Actors from Nizhnekamsk, Almetyevsk theaters – seven or eight theaters of the republic played in our film. We wanted the whole of Tatarstan to take part in it.

Even before the premiere of the film at the Kazan Muslim Film Festival, there were offers to show it in other regions. People want to see our picture, to understand the identity of the Tatars: who they are, how they live.

This picture also contains the theme of interaction between the Kryashens and the Tatars. This is interesting too. In my opinion, the Kryashens are the same Tatars, just with a different religion. We need to unite, not disunite.

– The People’s Artist of Azerbaijan Vadidi Hasanov, having watched “Isunmesez?”, Concluded that the family rallied because Tamerlane sacrificed himself. What else can unite people?

– The worst thing is that people most often unite when they have a common enemy. Unfortunately, this is how man is made. In ordinary life, he does not want to unite. Everyone has their own opinion on everything …

Probably, it is impossible to make everyone love each other. But we must try, at least, to understand. We are a huge country where people of different nationalities live. Each nation has its own history, language, identity. It is necessary to create conditions for all this to flourish.

We have opportunities in the republic for the development of different national cultures. There are schools where they study the Chuvash, Mari and other languages, there are many national festivals, exhibitions, holidays.

I think that the Tatar language must be taught in schools. Multilingual education is available in many countries of the world. As you know, four official languages ​​are used in Switzerland.

Do we  need a cinema fund?

 – You are the chairman of the Union of Cinematographers of Tatarstan. What, in your opinion, is necessary for the development of national cinema? And how to increase the box office of Tatarstan films?

– Of course, there is help in the development of cinema in the republic. They allocate money for filming. But we need a system in making a movie, we need to stop filming it on our own. Someone was able to get money for the film, someone could not … The republic needs a national film fund with a budget of at least 200 million rubles a year. Then the real film industry will appear.

After all, now, if I want to make a film, I start looking for a screenwriter, then look for money for the film. But nobody pays my salary at this time. We do not have a permanent payment system for cinema.

If we talk about the box office, I think that Tatarkino is coping with this task in the republic. But, in my opinion, the most promising platform in the modern world is the Internet, where a person can pay, say, 100 rubles and watch a movie. It is in this direction that we need to work now with producers and promoters.

– Your union has premises on the territory of Tatarkino. How is it used?

– Six months ago we received a small cinema hall of 160 square meters with 40 seats. Previously, a pandemic prevented the launch of shows there. But from this autumn every week we will organize screenings of our films, films of colleagues. This hall should become a place of attraction for professional filmmakers.

Many people go to the cinema today to laugh. This is normal because a person needs to rest. But when you get to the pictures of Andrei Zvyagintsev, many other directors, you leave the hall as if from a church, as from a mosque – cleansed. Films that make you think and worry are also in Tatarstan. These are the works of Salavat Yuzeev, Ilshat Rakhimbay, Alexey Barykin, and our other filmmakers.