Darya Zhuk talks about 90's, double-glazed windows and her favorite place in Minsk
For the first time in history, the Belarusian film was nominated for an Oscar. No matter how much we asked her, the film director Darya Zhuk did not agree to show it to us before the premiere, but she spoke a lot about the 90’s when the ‘Crystal Swan’ action takes place and compared it with today.
It’s hard to talk about a movie we did not see. Is this your personal story?
This story happened not with me, but with my friend. However, when I started doing this, it turned out that it had happened to even more people. In the 90’s, everyone tried to travel or leave for good. We had a brain drain and a massive exodus. Now I can travel around Europe and everywhere there will be friends to take me in. I am walking in New York and see a friend from my neighborhood, with whom I grew up, and I’m not even surprised that he lives somewhere near.
The main character’s desires and her concept of subculture resonate with me. I took part in rave parties and got inspired by them. DJ parties in Belarus were not a huge thing, they were attended by 300 people. It was our community, where everyone knew each other, and if they didn’t, they were still very close. We hung out together, searched for music, we wore bright colors.
In Moscow, for example, it’s still there — only now everyone wears black.
The movie is also about the relationship with homeland. The desire of the main character to leave is in conflict with people close to her. Her mother believes that Belarus is our karma: you were born here and that means you must live here.
The heroine has a friend, a drug addict and a DJ who thinks that he will make the best party in the world right now — and everything will change. And she believes that the world revolves around her, that she will achieve everything — just like it does in American movies, where everything turns out fine. Her dream is a little abstract: she has America inside of her, but she does not understand very well what is exactly happening in America.
If you had’t gone to the US, what would you be here?
I would have entered the economic university, the linguistic one, ot the BSU — I do not know. As a serious girl, I was going to be a businesswoman. The idea of making movies was not from this world, it simply did not exist, I did not know anyone who was involved in cinema. “Belarusfilm” used to make a lot of movies for children, I remember the crazy stories about how one of my friends got to the “Little Red Riding Hood” film set, but it was all far from me.
Is ‘Crystal Swan’ a historical film?
This is a historical drama by definition. The era we portrayed is recent, but still it was necessary to think through each step and every object. It was hard work for the art group: there are frozen places in Belarus, but it is still difficult to find them – it was necessary to go around and literally dig out neglected spots.
After the shooting, I was only looking at the windows. I was always bothered by double-glazed windows, which had to be painted over using special effects. This seriously held me back during the editing stage.
And how did you explain the 90s to young actors? Did they understand them, or was it Napoleonic wars to them?
It was really hard for them. And it was difficult for me to find the main character.
Once in Moscow, I took an actress by the hand and dragged her to a party at nine in the morning, which lasted all night and ended at noon. She, of course, had a shock. She had never seen this, she said: “Wow!”.
I realized that it is impossible to prepare a person to this just like that, and in order to walk this path, I need someone who is ready or whose attitude to the world is so revolutionary that it rejected everything that exists. I happened to find Alina Nasibullina – she plays Velia Soroka – who was in a state very similar to the heroine’s.
The generation of 20-year-olds was not born in the Soviet Union, for them it is like outer space. They are so light, airy. And we were a bit more down-to-earth, more dense and even fiercer at some points – “You touch me and I’ll scratch you” attitude.
In 1993 we went to Poland, we brought along all we could. Once I stood in the market for half a day – probably in Lodz – selling crystal, this product was made for export, in the West it cost more.
In my movie, crystal plays the role of symbol, it means a dream.
All the inhabitants of the rural area in the movie work at the crystal factory. They give the crystal, a piece of art, a shape — and they also shape the main character: “Yes, you think you are this way, and we think you are different.” And, of course, with their slow movements they win. It is impossible to be free in a society where people suffer alongside you, where they are personally unfree.
How different are the 90s from today?
We are sitting drinking coffee — then it was impossible, we did not have coffee culture. We had few public places where we could hang out. Therefore, people used to hang out and drink beer near the Philharmonic or in the parks. “McDonald’s” was just opening up — it was a place where you could run off to get something, and then go back to sit “under the clock.”
I think that much has changed since then, somehow it all settled. Then we constantly discussed the national and other ideas, everything was boiling. I had friends who spoke Belarusian, they had a Belarusian hip-hop group, they came to our rave parties, but wanted to do hip-hop. Of course, it was a battle, but it seemed that both would work out.
In the 1990s, they wanted to make the Belarusian language compulsory, and it was worrying for us: how to enter the Belarusian university? It seemed impossible. We discussed other ideas, but now I do not see this happening.
Preparing for the interview, we spoke with one of the participants of the rave parties back then who said that this culture did not develop due to the lack of legal and “pure” drugs.
We had young people who came to the club to stay there all night even without drugs.
My girlfriends were just hanging out, they were big supporters of a healthy lifestyle even before all this hype, bringing nuts and carrots to rave parties.
I think that the rave party culture got stalled because there were persecutions, raids on parties from time to time. At some point, everyone, including DJs, had problems with the police.
And why did the clubs close? The authorities were afraid of them or were they not commercially profitable to the owners?
It is the same everywhere: the best clubs exist for two or three years, like a surge of interest, and then life changes, rounds off. Why do restaurants close so quickly? There are, of course, cult places, but often you want something new.
But the “Tsentralny” store still exists.
The “Tsentralny” will never die.
What is your favorite place in Minsk?
I love the corner next to the McDonald’s, it’s very dear to me, we all met there, chilled and moved on somewhere else, it was great fun. You can still watch the youth there.
How do you follow events in Belarus from the States?
We were shooting the film a year and a half ago, in March, when there were huge demonstrations of “social parasites”, and all of this affected us very much: it is felt even if you do not participate. We were filming in one part of the city, but someone from the team could not get to the location — he was stopped. I remember that it was impossible to hang up curtains, because we couldn’t buy them promptly that day.
I follow events in Belarus through parents and friends, via Facebook. I have wonderful girlfriends who moved to New York — for example, writer Tatyana Zamirovskaya, she writes about Belarus.
I’m not a political person at all, I don’t read news, only stories — I’m interested in stories of potential characters. The last two years I had some kind of tunnel vision: I only had to deal with ‘Crystal Swan,’ I was in the black hole of the film. Sometimes I ask my husband — he’s a journalist — “what’s happening, tell me in a nutshell…”.
By the way, he starred in my movie as a US consul. He had just arrived in Belarus, and it so happened that we needed to film an American. He completely changed and I did not recognize him even when he washed off his make-up. The whole team was sure that this was a real consul. He did not just play — he was in this role all the time.
Did the American Embassy help you in any way?
I asked them to let us film the real fence near the embassy — they told us that the facility was under protection, classified, that it was not to be filmed. And now they are interested, they want to collaborate with us in the release of the movie.
In fact, I was supported by American taxpayers — a small grant from the ‘New York State Council on the Arts’. I’m a Belarusian, but I have lived there for a while, studied, paid taxes — I do not vote, but I can ask for support. Also, the American dream is an understandable theme for them.
And how did Belarus help?
I knew that at first I needed to prove myself there to present myself here. This is our trait. However, I did not take state money. I wanted to, but at that time the contest was moved from spring to August, and it was time to to shoot, everything was ready. Maybe I had to wait, but then it seemed that life was ending, and I would not shoot the movie in time. So it was either then or never.
If we had moved the shooting, the team would have to be reassembled: I brought Caroline from Los Angeles, she could not make it at another time, the actors also were very busy — two days here and one day there, and then there’s rehearsal.
What will your next film be about?
I want to explore the topic of the Soviet Union collapse. I am interested to learn how Belarus got through this, how it was different from the others in one big country.
Interviewed by Jakub Bernat and Denis Dziuba
