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Victor Ginzburg, the director of Generation P:
I love the novel and I spent several years of my life…
it is simply… and now we at last come to a moment when
of course my screen version is not what it should be initially.
I wrote a script, I mean suggest…
Connection with Pelevin
Yes, it is the very beginning.
Pelevin supported my view on this screen version.
Many years later it happened.
Our way toward it wasn't easy.
Nobody believed this book could be screened.
I was shadowed by this opinion at every stage.
It was hard to find sponsor and explain that the project is possible…
Plus the involvment of brands, without which this movie couldnt exist at all.
The main character chooses Coca-cola instead Pepsi at the end of the film…
it is a great metaphor of his life.
Even when we found partial financing,
we had to shoot a sample of the movie to show people that it is possible.
From this moment our adventures have started.
We shot a part of the movie, edited it and proved our project could exist,
then searched for additional financing.
The process was very difficult.
God save you from these tortures.
It was like to be on thin ice.
In any moment the project could be closed.
An actor could fall out due to some circumstances.
Our appearance usually changes for five years.
Yes, Andrey had no right to change during five years. Thank you for that.
Film encouraged us to be fit.
Now you should catch up. It is time to grow up.
It was also difficult because there were particular expectations of readers.
Each time we showed a shot part of the movie to investors and sponsors,
these videos were downloaded in the internet.
It seemed to be a game, as we were teasing the audience, but it was true, not a game.
Andrey Fomin:
I want to say that the movie was shooting for five years not because of lack of money.
During these years we worked seriously and hard.
You know that one of Oscar nominations is best adapted screenplay.
To adapt literature for movie is very difficult.
Victor and we, actors, always were in search…
What is the genre? How can we catch Pelevin's style and spirit?
Of course, text was rewritten, we tried to understand it.
However, the point is not in the text,
but in feeling this phantasmagoria in which all these events take place.
You can see in the trailer a funny scene with the head office of the Beekeeping Institute,
we shot it here in RIA Novosti office in the building which is a symbol of that epoch.
We searched for some outstanding facilities.
I will never forget the amazing stair in Ostankino which is called SK-3…
So the image of the Beekeeping Institute was formed by images of several different buildings.
We all many times have been in Ostankino, but I have never seen this giant stair.
Or Ostankino's greenhouse… I don't know why it is there, what for.
However, this phantasmagoria helped us to feel Pelevin's spirit.
It was great work.
We didn't want to shoot a one-day to-forget-about movie.
Many actors had been changed, something was added and so on.
Only in this way a serious movie can be made.
Ivan Zasursky, co-producer of GenerationP:
This movie demonstrates a row between people of previous generation,
who lived in the Soviet Union, and people of post-Soviet generation.
I think this movie is closely connected with myth of the 1990s.
I was living in the 90s and I remember this time quite well.
But it doesn't matter.
There are myths about the 90s.
I think our movie conveys the meaning of that time.
Pelevin's works contain a lot of science fiction,
he does it on purpose to not to be killed when a book is published.
In our movie we showed Russia's portrait in details with all this esotericism and metaphors.
General eagerness for material benefits, rush for gold are still taking place in our life.
The movie is currently central today.