Justine Waddell – Suicide is a response to untenable pain
Interview by Elena
Petrova, Translated by Jan Butler
In 2008, the Russian film director Alexander Zeldovich
began shooting his film Target, which he
had co-scripted with the author Vladimir Sorokin. What’s the film about? Life, its meaning, who we are,
and what we are here for.
The philosophical narrative is set in the year 2020, in a
corrupt but well-organized Russia, working with clockwork precision within a
coordinated global consumer network. Running right across country is a transit
highway with a constant stream of juggernauts rushing between China and
Paris. One of the film’s central characters (played by Maxim Sukhanov) – the
Russian Federation Minister of Mineral Resources – is at the top of caste
system in this future Russia. He eats psyllium seed husks for breakfast and sleeps
with the wife he selected at a bride market eight years previously. But
neither he, nor his wife, nor any of the other of the film’s
characters feels happy – something is missing for all of
them. And it is in search of this
“something”, or, more precisely, to heighten their
senses and gain eternal youth that they go off to the Altai Mountains,
to an abandoned astrophysics center, or “Target,” as the non-aging locals
have christened it.
The role of the trophy wife went to Justine Waddell, a South African-born British actress, who, prior to filming, had not known a single word of Russian. Her character finds her Vronsky in a customs officer/traffic policeman, and her end – on railroad tracks.
What did you think when
first offered this role?
I could not and I still cannot think of a situation in which
such a group of people would extend this kind of offer. It happens
once. I was sent an English translation of the script by the
European casting director, Leo Davis. I went to Moscow to meet
Alexander Zeldovich (the director) and Dmitry Lesnevsky (the
producer). I then did the oddest screen test of my life with Maksim Sukhanov
– he read in Russian and I read in English. We couldn’t understand a word of
what the other was saying! I thought after that they would accept there was no
way for a foreigner to play this role… (Laughs). So I may say
I was genuinely bemused when they then offered me the part.
What were your first
thoughts about the script?
It read like a great novel. I had only heard the vaguest
rumors about Sorokin’s writing – four years ago his books were out
of print in English. And even in a very rough English translation, I found
Zoya's predicament intriguing and powerful. A story about denial.
Denial as the beginning of a spiritual transformation. Although
there is the play with Anna Karenina – the story with Nikolai is
essentially here an expression of denial and destruction. Zoya
deliberately sets out to destroy her life. I found that
existential energy very contemporary and very frightening.
It's a very complex
role - what did you find most challenging?
In English this part would be challenging to play, in
Russian it was almost impossible. Once you start to discuss Taoist ideas of
denial and growth you’re already in highly charged and very subtle, emotional
territory. It was an extraordinary experience working with
Alexander Zeldovich. He seems as comfortable in psychology as
he is in directing. I very much admire his understanding of
the way people really react.
But I’ll be simple and say what I found most challenging was really something totally basic. I couldn’t relate freely to the cast members because I couldn’t speak any Russian! (Laughs). For an actor it’s the most important thing – to feel yourself free and comfortable and able to communicate with those around you. Maxim, Vitaly, Daniela, Nina, Daniel, they were all incredibly generous to me. My experience of the production of the film was so filtered by the language. I felt like I was acting through a wall of glass and I wanted that glass to shatter. Zoya herself is like a glass doll that wants to break apart.
The characters in
Target, Zoya included, want freedom, youth and happiness - why do they get
punished for something so innocent-sounding?
In some way, this group of people expect that they can buy happiness,
that they can buy freedom, that they can buy youth. And
do you know, I don’t feel those expectations are innocent at all.
In some way, the film derives its energy from the idea that happiness
is a consumer good. Something that you can purchase and
own, rather than something that comes to you unexpectedly. But
for me, when I am happy it comes to me unexpectedly.
Why do you think your
character kills herself?
Zoya has lived her life. She loses everything, she wins
everything again, and then she loses it again. Suicide in the end is
always an answer to untenable pain. In a terrible way, that is
Zoya’s happy ending.
What are the idiosyncrasies
of working with a Russian team and a Russian director?
I’ve only worked with one Russian crew and one Russian
director… If I talk about my experience of this film, I look at
Alexander as a director and one of his outstanding characteristics is he
relates freely and equally to his audience – there is never a
question of, ‘Will the audience understand?’ There is an assumption that the
audience is the most intelligent part of the process. I find that
inspiring. Generally, I feel Russian cinema is less dominated by
commerce.
As relates to the crew, it’s the only time I’ve ever been on a set where it felt that the grips and the sparks – that’s the technical group who really make a film happen – were as invested in the film as the director and actors. I remember overhearing two of the film electricians discussing the meaning of a scene one day! (Laughs). Alexander collected a very dedicated group of people around him – and it was a tough film to complete so that dedication was really important.
Another impression I have relates to what seems to me a peculiarly Russian tradition between directors. You know, I was at a Russian-language film festival a couple of weeks ago, and it was wonderful to see the way different generations of great Russian directors talked so freely to each other. It seems like they all understand how hard it is to make films, and support each other because of it.
You had to travel a
long way to get the perfect shots for this movie. How did you find relocating
to Altai for a time?
Altai was really a very special place. I’d had one similar
experience before, filming on a film called The Fall where we shot in
the Himalayas. You feel yourself to be free. I really can’t
think of any more accurate way to describe it. The sky seems very close. For many people Altai
is a mystical and spiritual place. I always laugh because we stayed in a
primary school when we were filming. I learnt how to boil eggs in a kettle.
Russians themselves like to talk about
the mysterious Russian soul – are they right or is it a myth?
Now
that really is a question for a Russian! I can say that we have Dickens and you
have Dostoevsky, we have Eliot and you have Tolstoy. What is this
mysterious Russian soul? I think in the end we decided that people use
the ‘Russian soul’ as a way to describe things that really would take pages of
description or
hours of conversation. It’s an easy moniker – oh, of course, the ‘Russian soul’. I
think we occasionally forget that Russia borders China, is Asian as much as
it is European, and has highly complex cultural and religious traditions which
face East as much as West.
You
see – easier just to say the Russian soul! (Laughs).
Have you got acquainted with contemporary
Russian art?
One
of the really special things about doing this film was that I taught myself
Russian by watching Soviet cinema. I felt like Alice in Alice in Wonderland.
Like Alice, I fell down the rabbit hole into a hidden and enchanting world of
film. Why is this film tradition hidden? Why has this film tradition
never travelled? Is it the legacy of the Cold War? Is it the boundary of
language? I don’t know.
I am now an avid cinephile. I am setting up a little classic Soviet film DVD label to bring these films out of Russia to a British audience.
If
I’m going to talk more generally about Russian plays and books and artists, I
can only really talk about the people I met in Moscow, people like Lev and
Tanya of AES+F, and Leonid Desyatnikov, our composer. Moscow seems to me to
have an incredibly
vibrant and sophisticated artistic community. It is absolutely clear that
Russians have always played and continue to play at the highest level in
art, music, film and literature.
So, do you like Moscow?
I
love Moscow. It’s a quicksilver city. It changes month by month and year by year. By
the way, now even when I drive in from Domodedovo – the highway begins to
look like the highway in our film with advertisements. I would like to come back
to Moscow soon
and I want to see the renovated façade of the Bolshoi theatre.
The movie was shot in 2008 - what have
you been doing since and what’s in a pipeline now?
Do
you know, this film felt to me really like it appeared by accident, by chance.
Why would a Russian director of Alexander Zeldovich’s calibre approach you to
play a part like this when you don’t even speak the language and have no
relationship to the country?
It was an important event in my life, not only because of the experience I had when making the film but because it exemplified for me that things happen by themselves.
In the end, it was a three-and-a-half-year experience from start to finish. And it has left me with a feeling of curiosity – curiosity to see if another step like this will appear by accident, by chance, out of nowhere, in front of me.
Justine Waddell was born in Johannesburg (South Africa) in
1976, and at the age of 11, moved with her family to London. She graduated from
the University of Cambridge with a degree in Social and Political Sciences, and
made her cinema debut was a small part in Anna Karenina (starring Sophie
Marceau). She has also appeared in theatre productions of Chekhov’s The Seagull
and Ivanov. Her film, theatre, and TV credits
include Chaos (2005), Dracula 2000 (2000), Mansfield Park (1999), and
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1998).
The
film Target had its world premiere at the 61st Berlin International Film
Festival where it was screened in the Panorama section.
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