David D'Arcy introduces a wide-ranging conversation...
How I Ended This Summer, written and directed by Alexei Popogrebsky, 37, makes its US premiere this weekend in the New Directors / New Films series in New York. In Popogebsky's blithely-titled third film, a veteran sailor (Sergei Puskepalis) and a high-school graduate eager for adventure (Grigori Dobrygin) are measuring radiation on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean. A ship is due to bring them home...
Popogrebsky wrote his script with the actor Sergei Puskepalis in mind, and based his story on journals from 1912 by NV Pinegin, who accompanied a failed mission to reach the North Pole. The film won a Silver Bear in Berlin for acting (awarded to both actors) and another for cinematography.
I met Popogrebsky three years ago, as a jury member at the Tbilisi International Film Festival, where the director received a prize for his previous film, Simple Things, which featured Puskepalis (in his first film role) as a cash-strapped anesthesiologist in St Petersburg whose integrity is compromised in every human encounter. In How I Ended This Summer, Popgrebsky distills those encounters down to two men, and nature. Trained as a psychologist, Popogrebsky discusses working with actors, shooting in nature, literary inspirations and the future of filmmaking in Russia.
To listen to David D'Arcy's interview with Alexei Popogrebsky click play below, or to download click here (23:43).