14 Steps Away

Director Maksim Shavkin

Cinéfondation, Festival de Cannes 2015

“Anna lives in a dorm in Moscow and tries to earn her living, which doesn’t always happen honestly. She sends some of the money to her mother, who lives in her hometown where she hasn’t visited for a few years now. Anna is planning to move to her boyfriend’s apartment to acquire long­awaited stability. Suddenly a man from her past bursts into her life.”- director, Maksim Shavkin

GFM:
Can you comment on your story development process?

Maksim:
Everything grows from my wish to depict a certain environment, time and characters. That is present in the film. The story itself is composed of several aspects ­ partly my personal interests and familiar situations and intonations, and partly out of reality that is dictated by actuality. In such a film it is necessary. Everything concerning events and actions of the film should be documented up to smallest detail.

GFM:
You filmed 14 Steps with a hand­held, very immediate, documentary feel. Can you talk about your collaboration with your cinematographer?

Maksim:
Anton Gromov, my DP and friend, and I happen to like similar things and luckily understand each other very well. I believe it’s a determining fact in every Director­Cinematographer union. How the result will correspond with the conceived plan, what decisions will be made on set ­ it all depends on this Director­Cinematographer connection. It’s very important to be able to get the light and picture you want, without spending enormous financial or moral resources on that. There’s always something else to spend it on. The scene of Anna and her sister in the Moscow train station is particularly impressive, shot in one long take with many bystanders around.

GFM:
How did you achieve that scene and did you have permission to film there?

Maksim:
Yes, we had the permit, thanks to our producer Anna Aleshkovskaya. It’s really difficult to provide things in a micro budget film. As for the scene itself ­ it didn’t happen easily either: the light was disappearing, Anton was walking almost blindly, actually he was walking backwards, and the Railway station was always crowded… but we did it in 7 takes (and that’s a really small number for me). I think that it doesn’t matter how hard you try, how much energy you expend or what problems came about; what’s important is that final take you have. You have to remember that.

GFM:
What project are you working on next and what are your plans for Cannes?

Maksim:
I have plans for future projects. I still have some time to make my Cannes schedule ­ actually I’m not a big fan of making schedules. They say, Cinéfondacion participants have some agenda we’ll see.