Written by Masha EgievaIn early 2024, I finished my second short film as writer-director, "Saint Vassily". A historical drama which takes place in 1982 USSR, "Saint Vassily" revolves around a self-righteous theological academy student, Vassily, preparing for Russian Orthodox priesthood. When his roommate goes missing, Vassily is tested by a KGB agent, who threatens to rescind his ordination unless he denounces his roommate.To bring Saint Vassily to life, I worked with incredible filmmakers, including DP Arnaud Potier (Galveston, Aggro Dr1ft) and editor Helle le Fevre (The Souvenir, The Eternal Daughter). "Saint Vassily" premiered at HollyShorts Film Festival in LA this August. In this piece, I want to talk about the thought process behind the making of this film, and how a filmmaker can sometimes obstruct their own artistic process. As a Russian-born filmmaker, "Saint Vassily" came from a feeling that everything I was writing at the time when Russia invaded Ukraine was irrelevant, and that I should be doing more meaningful and important work. Watching the war unfold before my eyes, documented in real-time, I felt the urge to talk about how today’s tragic reality became possible without speaking directly about Putin’s Russia. As a result, I made Saint Vassily, a study of moral compromise and what it leads to. While it is a historical drama, it was made to be relevant today, more than two years into the war. Masha Egieva on set of "Saint Vassily" Courtesy of Polymath PRInitially, I was going to make a documentary about the...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Wednesday, 25 September, 2024