First appearing on DN in 2016 and now back for his 9th featured article, Andrew De Zen’s The Robbery, commissioned by La Despensa agency for Amnesty International, offered the writer/director an opportunity to put his filmmaking skills and personal vehemence around ongoing political events to work on a campaign film for those caught up in the war “with as much of their collective rage, anger, sadness, and emotion as I possibly could”. De Zen was immediately impressed by the agency pitch whose bare bones he could instantly see fleshed out into a film which would stand out and, in a world currently burning, remind us that Ukraine is still under illegal occupation and the citizens of Russia are most certainly not all in lockstep with their despot ruler. Filmed over an intense and meticulously planned day in Madrid, De Zen built two worlds within one story and from the moment the film opens its tension is palpable. With The Robbery now available for all to watch, De Zen speaks to us about the intricate details he planted which gain significance later on, using docu-style long lens shots to connect the immediate sight lines with the action unfolding in the foreground and the personal importance of having the opportunity to make a film which speaks to friends and colleagues of his embroiled in the war.

We love the breadth and variety of your work here at DN. What brief did you receive and how much freedom did you have?

I received a brief from the agency La Despensa through my production company in Spain, Rebolucion. The original script had the broad strokes of the film in place. A group of people in a car, which seems like a bank robbery set up, turns into a protest, and then it all ends with an arrest. Immediately I knew this was something special and hit the ground running with it. I spent quite a while just thinking about the scenario and fleshing out all the details with rewrites. What was deeply refreshing on this film was the level of trust from Amnesty International and the whole team at La Despensa. Throughout the whole process, they completely trusted us and got what I wanted to do with this piece. It’s rare to see that with any project so it was an incredibly rewarding process.

The surprise turn when they leave the car really struck me! How did you devise the best way to deliver that shift, especially within such a short but effective runtime?

I spent a lot of time considering how to effectively pull it off. Hinting at it, planting clues, being authentic to the situation, and making sure it hits as hard as possible. This is a very real situation affecting a lot of people, some of who are close friends of mine so every choice came back to – is this simple, is this sincere? I wanted to capture a lot of small details and mini-stories within the car, like the woman’s ring, that make us question their behaviour, but in hindsight make you go “Ahhhh, I see now”.

This is a very real situation affecting a lot of people, some of who are close friends of mine so every choice came back to – is this simple, is this sincere?

On top of that, there’s a lot of setup of place and details of context while also setting up this conceit of the classic bank heist. The line of “no masks” was a detail that helped unravel my main approach on the film because it makes us question this dramatic situation, but also plays into the reality of our characters. I worked out a pretty intricate history for the characters as an example, so that their relationship together makes sense, along with why they’re protesting, and knowing what is to come from their actions. It’s all about consequences.

I was immediately engrossed by that opening car scene when we’re close up in our protagonists’ faces, blurring from characters and directly hitting us with the tension. How was that shot and did you struggle to find somewhere in Madrid so fitting?

Thanks, this is actually my favourite part of the whole film because it all depends on this set up. I broke the film down into two parts. Part one is the pressure cooker in the car where we have to build up the intense anxiety as they make a decision, and part two is the inevitable consequences of their decision. What makes this setup in the car impactful to me is that these characters already know what is going to happen to them when they step out. So shooting this scene was all about this knowledge, their relationships with each other, using the space of the interior of the car and the exterior world of our ‘Russia’ to create more stress, while also playing inside the bank heist trope only to start unravelling it slowly. We knew we wanted a real Russian cast who could speak Russian to keep it all authentic.

Creating a strong sense of place was important for me. We found a perfect street in Madrid that gave us this non-descript Eastern European look to sell it well enough, and we touched up some signs to help place us in Russia. The only thing was our location, well, it’s a big street, in Madrid, with lots of people. So we knew we’d essentially be following our cast having to perform this protest and be arrested for real in front of a live audience which led to a real spark of nerves and tension on set where Georgy Kirov, Alexandra Prokhorova, and Sam Bredikhin could lean on this in their performances. For me it changed how I directed everything on the day.

“There’s no turning back” and that building intensity kicks in and your sound is so important to this moment which serves as a backdrop to their shouts and screams. Talk to us about the sound design.

Sound design for me is always as critical as the imagery. I can’t help it, I am very picky with a mix and my sound designer Nikolay Antonov, who I’ve worked with a few times, really brought it on this film. Little things like the radio in the car speaking about the trial of one of the real Russian activists and all the work we did layering things to build as deeply rich a soundscape as possible all added up. But for me, this moment in the film speaks to our composer’s outstanding music. Philip Calisto sent me his initial V1 and it built up to this wonderful powder keg moment where they’re all about to exit the car but we’re lingering on their anxious faces, and the music just twists that knife even more. It’s a real back and forth between sound design and the music. The car is all about details of sound, perspectives, atmosphere. But when they exit I wanted to create this feeling like what we see happen now is doomed to happen and that’s where the sound needs to give up the reigns a bit and the music drives things.

Firstly, you can’t beat film – I don’t care what your dynamic range charts say. And secondly, it does something to everyone on set.

We know from previous projects that you love to shoot on film, was this always the idea for this piece?

As soon as I got the script I told everyone we were shooting on film. We had a very tight budget so it was honestly a bit of a struggle at first, but film is really important for me in two ways. Firstly, you can’t beat film – I don’t care what your dynamic range charts say. And secondly, it does something to everyone on set. It’s purely a personal decision, but whenever I’m making a film of mine, and this was essentially a short film for Amnesty International, it’s always on film.

We made sure to capture lots of perspectives and docu-style long lens shots where we connect sight lines with the action in foreground.

The point of arrest, the violence, the speed and the ferocity of this climax is such a visceral moment. Can you tell us how it was it all planned out, shot and edited?

Well, we had a pretty intense one day shoot. It’s all about them being seen in this protest to get their message out, so details of bystanders and a photographer seeing the incident were important to get. We made sure to capture lots of perspectives and docu-style long lens shots where we connect sight lines with the action in the foreground. The location itself was great but because of our smaller crew size, it was tough to control two lanes of traffic and lots of real people just meandering around and watching which actually led to a stronger sense of realism on camera, but I was more restricted with where I could actually put the camera. A full turnaround would just mean seeing a wall of students watching and filming us – not the best for our film. But I wanted to stage the arrest in all one action so when the cop cars come speeding around we wouldn’t cut and we’d let the action play out. Of course it was intricately rehearsed with our stunt choreographer, but with my DOP Carlos Feher we wanted to let the action play out. The camera slowly becomes more and more chaotic as if it is also being swept up in the arrest, devolving into blurs and shakes.

His face on the ground, eyes full of fear but chanting “I am not afraid” is spectacular. All the actors are powerful, apart from native Russian speakers what were you looking for and how did you rehearse with them?

I didn’t want any cliches of Russian typecasts. We knew right away the cast would be Russian and we got extremely lucky with finding Georgy, Alexandra, and Sam so quickly. We had a lot of conversations about the material, how they felt, what I was trying to do with the film, and we were all on the same page. On set I like to be really hands on, working with everyone, spending time intimately blocking and rehearsing, but I also like to have fun and keep everyone comfortable on set.

So much of my time thinking and prepping was trying to put myself in that car, and when I think about everyone I know whose lives were torn apart by this war – that’s a very special kind of anger.

With this film, we needed to keep some of that tension alive so it was a balancing act. The whole team was on board and understood the importance of this story. That ending for example was a crucial piece of what I wanted to do with the film. Making people think, “What would I do if I were in this situation?” So much of my time thinking and prepping was trying to put myself in that car, and when I think about everyone I know whose lives were torn apart by this war – that’s a very special kind of anger. But it’s a film that can also speak to many different events happening in the world at the moment. Where one person inexplicably considers themselves more human than someone else. Or a regime with its stranglehold on a whole population. That “I am not afraid” moment speaks for all of these people wanting justice.

You have mentioned that this is a very important film to you personally, did you have any reservations going into the project?

Honestly, none. I can’t speak to being Russian or Ukrainian myself, but having the opportunity to speak up for something affecting my friends and colleagues in some small way was and is a chance I will jump at any time. I believe that a story can be told by anyone, as long as you respect it and the people involved. Every case needs to be treated independently and weighed to see if you can or even should be the one telling that particular story. In this case, things aligned. It felt right. All of us involved made this film for our Ukrainian and Russian friends caught in this war. I wanted to inject this film with as much of their collective rage, anger, sadness, and emotion as I possibly could. This is for them.

You are prolific…what’s next?

Right now there are a few things on the horizon. I’m developing the most ambitious short film I’ve ever set out to make about a young girl and her invisible best friend running away from home in a world where giant walking island-like creatures are leaving on a final migration. I hope that this can be made into a feature. I’ve also been slowly developing an anthology animated TV series, something like Love, Death + Robots, and the newest show Secret Level. I fucking love animation. But it’s a slow process. There’s also another film I’m developing about a joyride gone wrong with a group of teens that becomes something out of a Lovecraftian suburban nightmare…so a few things!

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