"Great directors are only God’s assistants", film director Sergey Dvortsevoy points out.


Photographer: Annina Mannila

Dvortsevoy was born and raised at the steppes of Kazakhstan, where he also directed his first feature film, Tulpan. Dvortsevoy doesn't think that he can be as close to God in any other place.

"You revive in emptiness. There you understand that you are just a small human being, a grain of sand. Life at the countryside of Kazakhstan is both complicated and simple. People who live there have a certain inner balance, which we - people living in urban areas - have lost. When you travel by train across Kazakhstan, you can see nothing from the windows but steppes, sky and camels, and yet the place is filled with life. Even though nomads are poor, they wish to live there."

Dvortsevoy applied to study filmmaking in Moscow when he was already 29. Aeroflot pilot longed for a change. In a Kazakh newspaper, he saw an advertisement about documentary film course and decided to apply.

"I didn't know anything about documentaries. Since I was already on my way to study documentary filmmaking, I thought that I had to see a documentary film and I watched one. I was pure as a child. I didn't begin watching movies seriously before I went to school."

The legacy of Sergei Eisenstein is clearly present in Russian film culture.

"95 percent of Russians think that Eisenstein's way of making films is the only and right way. Cinema is much more than just about editing, it's something within the picture."

"Telling a story is important, but I am interested in picture. I'd say we have too many tools and filmmakers often get lost with all those tools. We don't know what to do with them and we forget about the picture."

There are long takes Dvortsevoy's films, but their length isn't the purpose itself. He speaks about the energy hidden within the picture.

"A small change in sound, camera movement and zooming change the energy of the picture. Directors occasionally change the energy only because they are afraid of the picture. You don't need any movements if there is a trick involved. Life itself is the trick."

Editing process is always a small murder.

"When you edit, you kill the image. It's hard to comprehend what is energy and what is emptiness. Sometimes you need emptiness as well."

In the beginning of his career, Dvortsevoy made several documentary films, but he doesn't believe he'll return to his roots. The moral responsibility is too big, and he doesn't enjoy the power that the work brings.

"Sound, light, camera, lenses and editing give me chance to manipulate and show what I want. I felt like I turned into devil."

"I find that a documentary film has to examine and investigate physical reality. In film school I saw a lot of documentaries and I was surprised. I felt like all those directors wanted to prove something, tell us what they thought of life itself instead of showing what it is."

While filming Tulpan, Dvortsevoy met the man who was the main character in his documentary film Paradise. Because of the documentary, man was in trouble with the government officials.

"I couldn't take the risk of hurting a human being. Officials had harassed the man and wondered, why did I give me the permission to film his dirty child. They thought I made the film to show the world that Kazakhstan is a poor country."

(Translated from a Finnish original. Dvortsevoy was, however, speaking English. The press secretary apologizes and takes the blame.)