Katerina Ksenyeva

Katerina Ksenyeva
Born	Katerina Yuryevna Mamina (1975-12-05) December 5, 1975 Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, USSR
Occupation	actress, singer, composer, author, journalist
Years active	1997 to the present
Religion	Christian
Parents	Film director Yuri Mamin Actress and producer Lyudmila Samokhvalova

Katerina Ksenyeva (born December 5, 1975) is a Russian actress, singer, composer, author and journalist. She is best known as the leading actress in the film Don't Think About White Monkeys and in the TV series Grim Tales From Russia. Her music album "Lullaby for a Man" is noted for its original style and high vocal quality.^[1]

In 2013, Ksenyeva came to the United States on a O-1 visa granted for persons with extraordinary abilities in arts, and started working in New York.^[2]

Childhood and family

Katerina Ksenyeva was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia (former USSR). Her father is the widely acclaimed film director Yuri Mamin. During Katerina's childhood years, Mamin was working as an assistant for various film directors on diverse projects, fulfilling virtually all of the most complex and difficult tasks on film sets. Her mother, the actress Lyudmila Samokhvalova, who played in the films "The Prince and the Pauper", "Hold on to the Clouds", "Fontain" and "Gorko!", worked part-time at the theater. In order to make ends meet, Samokhvalova had to wait in long lines of pawn shops. Katerina's parents were never members of the Communist Party. Yuri Mamin was always against the ruling communist authorities; because of this, he and his family were often humiliated and deprived of career opportunities.^[2]

A breakthrough in their fate happened in 1985, when Perestroika began. Ksenyeva says, however, that the end of Perestroika in 1991 marked a new era of Russian cultural degradation, along with the onset of what she calls the power of neo-feudal oligarchy.^[2][3]

Career

Theater

Katerina Ksenyeva planned to become an opera singer and laboriously studied vocal singing since her school days. At the same time, she also studied choreography.

She enrolled in the Department of Opera Vocals at the Musical College at the Bishkek Conservatory, where she studied for a year under Vladimir Mukovnikov, and then took lessons from Bulat Minzhilkiev; both her teachers are renowned opera singers.

In 1994, she enrolled in the drama department at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy.

In 1998, she graduated from the master workshop of the actor and director Yuri Tomoshevsky, an honored art worker of the Russian Federation. Her diploma role was the part of Elvira in Max Frisch's play "Santa-Cruz" at the Comedian's Refuge State Theater ("Priyut Komedianta").

While working on Elvira's role in this play, Katerina Ksenyeva began to study modern jazz dance with Natalya Kasparova and took master-class lessons from the Broadway choreographer Phil LaDuca. The ingenious choreography of the theatrical choreographer Sergey Gritsay, who worked with the director Yuri Tomoshevsky, demanded "nervous" control of her body, which reveals the internal breakdown of the heroine.

Cinema

Film director Yuri Mamin highly evaluated Ksenyeva's acting in "Santa-Cruz". Since then he began to invite her to participate in his films.

Ksenyeva's played a naïve 1960's bride in the film "Gorko!" (1997).

She played the cross-eyed romantic journalist Masha in Yuri Mamin's TV series Grim Tales From Russia (TV series) (2000–2003), which was created as a satirical analogue of the American X Files planted on Russian soil.

In 2004, Katerina Ksenyeva took part in the Kirill Kapitsa TV series "Cops", in the episode "Sniper", playing the part of actress Zoya, who killed a rapist with a sniper rifle.^[4]

In 2005, due to the most difficult situation of lack of help and support for director Yuri Mamin, Katerina Ksenyeva began assisting in the production of the film Don't Think About White Monkeys. Because of political pressure and covert persecution, the film director Yuri Mamin, as an active denouncer of social injustice, was excluded from work in large-scale cinematography for ten years. Katerina helped to attract investment in the project, thus becoming de facto a co-producer and the creative producer of the film. The work on the film was finished in 2008 and it was released in Russian theaters in January 2009.^[5]

In the film "Don't Think About White Monkeys", Katerina Ksenyeva plays the leading role of Dasha, a destitute young suicidal Russian woman who finds herself in a humiliating situation and struggles to survive. Dasha escapes from a psychiatric hospital and returns with her friend to his attic, where they are discovered by Vova, a successful barman and businessman. At first, Vova dreams of using all three of them for cheap labor, but then Vova's life changes under the influence of these destitute, restless, non-conformist and talented people. When he betrays them and ruins their lives, Vova understands that his life is devoid of meaning.

The film "Don't Think About White Monkeys" received numerous international and national awards, including the grand prize at the The End of the Pier International Film Festival (2009) and the grand prize at the International Film Festival in Rabat, Morocco (2009).

Because the genre of satiric tragicomedy is unpopular with the Russian authorities, only twelve copies of the film "Don't Think About White Monkeys" were released across the country, and they were only shown in theaters during the daytime. The film received almost no publicity because the Cinematography Department at the Ministry of Culture refused to provide Yuri Mamin with advertising support. At the same time, the film was stolen and handed over to Russian pirates.^[6][7]

Music

Katerina Ksenyeva was shocked by what she considers the treason committed against the crew of the submarine Kursk and the lack of assistance for the perishing sailors. In 2006 she released the rock ballad "Lullaby for a Man", which was top-rated by the listeners of the Moscow Radio Maximum in 2007 and was received with delight by a number of famous foreign musicians.^[1][2]

In 2009, the company Bomba-Piter released Katerina Ksenyeva's first vocal album, "Lullaby for a Man", which includes the actress' rock ballad. The remaining songs in the album, which belong to various genres, are works of other composers - some are rock, some are French chanson. The songs are joined by short audio clips of amusing and paradoxical psychological slices of life, which makes the actress' album original and unique. This album includes Ksenyeva's mystic ballad "Insomnia" from the film "Don't Think About White Monkeys".

Ksenyeva is also the writer and composer of other songs and instrumental compositions. In 2008, she wrote the English lyrics and music for her song "New York, New Life, New Love" dedicated to all New Yorkers and to the victims of the September 11 terror attacks.^[8] She is working on recording it as a complex vocal composition with a Gospel choir lead by David Quinones.^[9]

Film production

Ksenyeva is working on the film project "Rockman" about the fate of talented people in Russia and America at the beginning and the middle of the 20th century, which she is producing for director Yuri Mamin together with filmmakers from the United States, is dedicated to the theme of mutual ethnic understanding and mutual cultural enrichment. Katerina Ksenyeva conceived the author of the film's idea and wrote a part of the script.

Ksenyeva also conceived the idea and wrote, in co-authorship, the script for the film project "The Joy of Love to Joyce", dedicated to the suffering of the Russian intelligentsia in general and the tragic fate of the Russian translators of James Joyce's novel Ulysses in particular.^{[2][10][11][12]}

Film dubbing

After Katerina Ksenyeva's negotiations with her English partners, the film "Don't Think About White Monkeys" is being prepared for dubbing in one of the most professional studios of the renown London sound engineer Ray Gillon. For the first time in history, a Russian film in verse will be dubbed into English verse.^[2]

Journalism and social activism

Katerina Ksenyeva is also a journalist and author of literary works.^[13] She says that her social and civic activism is inseparable from her creativity.

As a journalist, Katerina Ksenyeva is adamant about the position of Russia in modern society. She believes that the contemporary powers in Russia are a symbiosis of the former Soviet Komsomol functionaries' party money and the bureaucrats on one side and, on the other side, of the bandit capital earned by the dishonest Russian businessmen through speculation, financial machination and theft from trusting citizens, racket and the robbery of the 1990s. As a result of this symbiosis, a new ruling class has appeared: the modern Russian feudal corporate oligarchy. In Ksenyeva's opinion, this class is devoid of culture and morality, with the rare exception of a few individuals, and presents a danger not only for Russia, but for the entire world as well.

Ksenyeva believes that the problems of nationalism and racism and religious and racial hostility in the whole world, in Russia and the United States, did not go away; on the contrary, they are currently gaining new power. In order to resist against this tendency, Ksenyeva emphasizes the theme of cross-cultural solidarity in her works.^[9][14]

Roles

Work in theater: 1997-2000. Comedian's Refuge State Theater ("Priyut Komedianta") in Saint Petersburg, led by Yuri Tomoshevsky. Leading tragic role of Elvira in Max Frisch's play "Santa-Cruz".

1997: "Gorko!" ("Wedding Kisses"), romantic comedy directed by Yuri Mamin. Ksenyeva plays the role of a 1960's romantic fiancée.

2000-2003: Grim Tales from Russia, 18 satiric TV series, directed by Yuri Mamin. The leading role of Masha Palkina, a young squint-eyed journalist.

2003: "The Sniper", episode in the detective TV series "Cops", directed by Kirill Kapitsa. The role of Zoya, a revengeful actress.

2009: Don't Think About White Monkeys, a tragicomedy directed by Yuri Mamin. The leading role of Dasha, a penniless Bohemian intellectual.

Prizes and awards

Grand prize at the All-Theater Contest of Romance Singers, 1995 (while being a 2nd year student at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy)

Second place winner of the International Singer Contest AYUM-97, 1997

Special International Jury Diploma for best actress and Moritz de Hadeln's special remarks at the International Film Festival in Rabat, Morocco, 2009

Quotes

• I think that so-called "losers" ("лохи") are, perhaps, those people who believe in a bright ideal, who have moral principles and the most important of these principles is faith in people and life. Faith and sacrifice go hand in hand.^[3]

See also

• Yuri Mamin
• Cinema of Russia
• Don't Think About White Monkeys
• Grim Tales From Russia (TV series)

External links

• Katerina Ksenyeva at the Internet Movie Database
• Katerina Ksenyeva's website
• Katerina Ksenyeva's official biography
• Yuri Mamin's Fountain Fund
• Website of the film "Don't Think About White Monkeys"
• Website of the TV series "Grim Tales From Russia"

• Katerina Ksenyeva in Russian Wikipedia

References

Persondata
Name	Ksenyeva, Katerina
Alternative names
Short description	Russian actor
Date of birth	December 5, 1975
Place of birth	Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, USSR
Date of death
Place of death