Mikhail Kalatozishvili

Mikhail Kalatozishvili is an art director, screenwriter, and producer. He was born in 1959 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Since 1973 he’s been living in Moscow.

Mr. Kalatozishvili is a member of the Russian Cinematographer’s Union. He graduated from the Directing Department of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography in 1981, after which he worked as an art-director at Gruzia-Film Studios (1985-1991) and Lenfilm Studios (1994-2000). Since 2000, he has been the president of the Mikhail Kalatozov Fund, a non-profit fund for the support and development of national cinematography.

Selected Film Credits:

1981 Mechanic (“Mekhanik”) – feature – screenwriter, director

1992 The Beloved (“Rcheuli”) – feature – co-screenwriter, director Berlin, Telluride, Chicago, Montreal IFF, Bergamo FF, Best Director Award, Pescara FFl, Special Jury Prize, Madrid FF

2000 Mysteries (“Misterii”) – feature – co-screenwriter, director Madrid IFF

2001 I Dream of Hunchbacked Tiflis (“Mne Tiflis Gorbatyy Snitsya”) – doc. – director, producer

2001 Two Atoms (“Dva Atoma”) – doc. – screenwriter, director, producer

2004 S.O.S. – feature – producer

2005 Lovitor – feature – producer

2005 First Under God (“Pervyy Posle Boga”) – feature – producer

2006 A Film About Mikhail Kalatozov (“Film o Mikhaile Kalatozove”) – doc. – producer

2007 Vanechka – feature – producer

2008 The Killer’s Trap (“Kapkan dlya Killera”) – feature – producer

Currently in Preproduction:

Buddha’s Little Finger (“Mizinets Buddy”) – feature – producer

The Dawns Here Are Quiet (“A Zori Zdes Tikhie”) – feature – producer

About Working On The Film

“The Wild Field is primitive, that’s what makes it wild. It’s a world where everything is hypertrophied. Everything that takes place on the Wild Field would seem smeared and without well-defined outlines if it happened here in our ordinary lives. But there, as it is in a primitive world, love can’t exist without anger and overcoming adversity.”

“In this case, to cross the field means to live out your life. And not just to live it out by simply existing. Life changes radically at this crossing. A person changes beyond recognition. And all of us, the people who came here, have also changed a little.”

About Mitya, The Story’s Central Character

“First of all, for me, he’s a person for whom the problem of time doesn’t exist. What to do from dawn to dusk is not a question for him even though he lives in a totally isolated place. Nevertheless he’s busy all day. And there’s only one reason why – he knows exactly what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. He knows exactly what he’s there for.”

About Casting

“We were searching for our Mitya for a long time. Today it’s difficult to find a person who is able to detach himself from the hustle and bustle. This was our biggest problem. Everything had to come together: we needed a good actor, someone unencumbered by commotion, and a man who also fit the physical image of Mitya that came forth from the script. Finally, we found him.”

“Casting ran from January through August and the process was very difficult for one reason – we searched for actors with the right looks and ideal acting abilities for every role, from the film’s lead right down to the passing nameless characters of the script.”

“Now I can’t even imagine a different Officer Riabov (Roman Medyanov) or a different Dr. Fyodor Abramovich (Yuri Stepanov). Real life father and son, Alexandr Ilyin, Sr. and Alexandr Ilyin, Jr. play father and son in our project.”

А“The role of the teenage girl Gala is played by 17 year-old Ira Butanayeva who has never acted in a film before. She has both a natural artistic talent and the ingenuousness of a child.”