Screen Hub
Friday 17 June, 2011

Writer Stephen Sinclair (Ladies Night, LOTR 2) adds a feature directing credit withRussian Snark, a story inspired by the real event of a Vladivostok couple turning up in NZ in 1999, having made the journey from Russia in a lifeboat.

Sinclair started on the script in 2007, and shot the film mostly in two blocks the following year during May and September, which a lot of the exterior shooting covered off in the first block. “It wasn`t fair to expect people to crawl around on a beach naked, covered in mud on a winter`s day.”

He`d always seen it as an independent piece, deciding going in not to apply for funding. At a Script To Screen Writers Room early in 2009, he spoke about the decision and the importance of retaining some control over the material as it didn`t easily tick boxes for NZFC support. The story centres on two Russian characters who speak their native language a good amount of the time.

Sinclair also wanted to treat making the film “like writing a novel”, and to have the freedom to go back and revise as it developed – an approach he now describes as a little naïve. There was some luck in that people remained available when it came time to do pickups and add in new scenes, but making the film in that way was always the plan.

The development of the film after a rough cut, with the addition of new scenes, makes it a more coherent piece than it apparently was early on.

The film is not easy, although it`s peppered with humour, not only in some of the referential scenes but also, occasionally, unintentionally. One scene where a character attempts suicide was greeted with laughter at festival screenings last year. It wasn`t what Sinclair expected, but he`s relaxed about it, happy to let audiences take the film as they find it.

Sinclair wrote the piece for the two main actors, Kiwi Stephen Papps and Russian native Elena Stejko. Papps does a great job with both the Russian language and Russian-accented English. The two actors had worked with Sinclair previously, on a short film. Their work on that was the driver for Sinclair to write a feature for them.

Sinclair described NZ`s acting fraternity as having “depth, but not great breadth”, which he felt was another good reason to write for specific actors rather than hoping that someone out there will fit the characters created.

He said, “With this film I’ve sought to create an eccentric comedy drama, which is artistically engaging and accessible; thought-provoking and entertaining.”

It`s a crafted statement, befitting of a writer, but nonetheless an accurate description of what he`s achieved. The film isn`t entirely straightforward. Certainly Misha (Papps) is not the most loveable protagonist you`ll find on screen, but between Sinclair`s writing and direction and Papps` performance, Misha is impossible to hate which – given the story`s denouement – is an important if difficult line to tread.

A year on from its premiere at last year`s NZFF, the film is still screening on the festival circuit internationally, where it`s picked up many competition nominations and won Best International Film at the Garden State Film Festival.

Here at home it won Stephanie Tauevihi the Best Supporting Actress at last year`s Qantas Film & TV Awards, and was nominated in five other categories.

There`s plenty of art for the arthouse crowd, and film students can sit up late discussing the symbolic and metaphorical importance of the imagery, the lifeboat in which the couple arrive, the chickens with which Misha bonds, as well as reflecting uncomfortably on the alienation of artists from society.

For the less self-obsessed, it`s a very entertaining story with entertaining characters and deserves a wider audience than it might find.

For himself, Sinclair is busy with other work as well as bobbing around the country for the next few weeks to attend screenings. He has a play opening at Devonport`s Victoria in August and is working on other film scripts. He`s recently completed a draft of an adaptation of his children`s story Bartholomew’s Birthdayfor Peter Jackson, and is currently developing “a hallucinatory thriller” Distant Fires with Snark producer Liz DiFiore.

A list of Russina Snark screenings and Q&A sessions in various centres is here. More information about the film can be found here.