Posing as a Victim

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1 Film Information
2 Credits
3 Companies
4 Festivals
5 Plot summary
6 History...
7 External links
8 Trailers on YouTube

[edit] Film Information

Playing the Victim (2006) (Russian: Изображая жертву, Playing the victim, Izobrazhaja Zhertvu) is a black comedy, grossly absurd, full of deliberate anarchy, and somehow associating with the Hamlet. [1], [2]

Country: Russia

Genre: Adaptation, Foreign, Drama, Black Comedy

Running time: 100 mins.

Distributor: West (Russia)

a.k.a : Izobprzhaya Zhertvu, Izobrajaya Zhertvy, Playing the Victim

[edit] Credits

Director: Kirill Serebrennikov

Screenplay: The Presnyakov brothers, Oleg and Vladimir Presnyakov. Based on the same titled play created by "the Presnyakov brothers".

Producer: Natalia Mokritskaya, Uliana Savelieva, Leonid Zagalsky

Camera (color/ B&W, DV-to-35mm): Sergei Mokritsky;

Editor: Olga Grinshpun;

Music: Alexander Manotskov;

Production designer: Valery Arkhipov;

Sound (Dolby Digital): Daler Khasanov

Cast:

Yuri Chursin ... Valya
Vitali Khayev ... Captain
Aleksandr Ilyin ... Seva
Marat Basharov ... Karas'
Olga Demidova ... Woman cafe worker
Marina Golub ... Valya's mother
Anna Mikhalkova ... Lyuda
Fyodor Dobronravov ... Valya's father / Uncle Petia
Andrei Fomin ... Sysoev
Yelena Morozova ... Olya
Natalya Mokritskaya ... Woman working in swimming pool
Igor Gasparian ... Zakirov
Maksim Konovalov ... Verkhushkin
Aleksey Marchenko ... Manager of Japanese restaurant
Liya Akhedzhakova ... Waitress in Japanese restaurant

[3] [4]

[edit] Companies

Company-Role Novye Lyudi - Production Company; Russian Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography- Film Financier; Vega Production- Production Company; West (Russia)-Distribution Sales; West (Russia)-Foreign Theatrical Distributor; [5]

[edit] Festivals

Winner of the Open Russian Film Festival "Kinotavr", Russia 2006. [6]

Grand Prize Winner, 1st Rome Film Feast, Italy (Cinema 2006) October 13-21, 2006. [7]

Shown at Tallin Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia, 3 December, 2006. [8]

Shown at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands. 25 January, 2007. [9]

Shown at European Film Market, Germany. 9 February, 2007. [10]

Shown at 6th Russian Film Week in New York, October 13-19 2006, New York, USA. [11]

Shown at Tribeca Film Festival (World Narrative Feature Competition)New York, USA April 25-May 6, 2007. [12]

Shown at ERA New Horizons Film Festival, Poland. 21 July, 2007. [13]

Shown at Kinoart Film Festival, Toronto, Canada ,2007. [14]

Shown at 28th Durban International Film Festival 20 June-1 July, 2007. [15]

Shown at 7th goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Films in Wiesbaden, Germany March 28 - April 3, 2007, the film won Honorable Mentions. [16]

Shown at Copenhagen International Film Festival, Denmark, 22 September, 2007. [[17]]

[edit] Plot summary

The main character,Valya, a wilful man of 30, drops out of university and goes to the police. He's done nothing wrong he just wants a job. A particular job. Playing the victim in murder reconstructions. He has a fear from death. Maybe by getting close to death he can manage to cheat his own.

These absurd occasions bring out the dubious talents of the police inspector, who can t understand this younger generation. The inspector delivers the culmination of the movie, in the form of terribly profane but still very powerful and philosophical speech.

The best dark comedies are often those that contain sparkles in their darkness. Playing the Victim is a quirky, inventive film with a delightful premise and an evil but charming glint in its eyes. Valya is an ambivalent young guy who, as per the film's title, plays the role of the victim in crime reconstructions – most of which are absurdly bureaucratic processes rather than forensically necessary. The results of these re-enactments are digitally filmed by the lovelorn Lyuda who holds the camera but is frequently distracted. Meanwhile on the home front, Valya lives with his mother and his uncle in a world saturated by absurd banality. To his set-upon girlfriend he seems to feel only a nominal attraction, it all gets too much for Valya. Director Kirill Serebrennikov has come up with a joyride of a film that veers between being dark, suggestive and joyfully idiosyncratic. [18]

[edit] History...

"Playing the victim" play saw its English language(Translated by Sasha Dugdale) and world premiere at the "Edinburgh Fringe Festival", Theatre Travers ,2003,a joint production by the "Royal Court Theatre", London and innovative British company Told By An Idiot. Directed by "Richard Wilson".

The play has been published in English in 2003, "Nick Hern Books"[3], London.

"Playing the Victim proves to be one of the few new British plays with something to say in recent years."By Helena Thompson in Edinburgh, BBC News, 13 August, 2003 [19]

The Presnyakov brothers have become the most frequently staged Russian playwrights after Anton Chekhov. "There isn't a day that their plays are not performed someplace the world over," says Judy Daish, the Presnyakov Brothers' London-based agent. [1]

In April, 2007, Playing the victim novel has been published in Russian language. [20], [21]