Lado Kvataniya is no stranger to the pages of DN and as we’ve bore witness to in his previous works, he’s a director who consistently demonstrates a fierce unwillingness to acquiesce on his approach to filmmaking, regardless of the highly ambitious concepts he delivers. This time round in Revansh, his metaphorical music video portrait of modern Russia for long time collaborators Husky, the onerous challenge he set himself was the staging of an all out brawl at a funeral where no one walks away unscathed. Watch Revansh below, after which Kvataniya provides some insight into his use of 16mm and hidden cuts to imbue the video with its narcoleptic atmosphere.

I have been working with this artist for a long time and I therefore have a distinct feel for the song, he completely trusts my vision. The idea was born from the theme of the song, the artist is singing about being a corpse. That is, it is not clear whether he is alive or dead.

Soviet houses, like those represented in Revansh, resemble a columbarium and we live our lives in them and thus celebrate and bury people. One gets the feeling of a feast during the plague. This is an attempt to understand our life through a metaphor.

We shot on 16mm Kodak and filmed all day. I chose to use film because of the nature of it, it hides the detailing and at the same time reveals the color differently. For our story, it strengthened the texture and added dirt.

This is an attempt to understand our life through a metaphor.

Visually, I wanted to capture the feeling of sleep, so we tried to shoot in one shot. It is clear that there are scenes which have been edited together, but importantly, the feeling of a single canvas is still there.

In regards to future work, I am working on my first feature The Execution it’s almost finished with just a little bit left.

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