WARNING: The following article includes spoilers for Why Don't You Just Die!
Russian writer and director Kirill Sokolov's first feature film Why Don't You Just Die! is a stylized, ultra-violent black comedy that takes cues from a variety of its cinematic predecessors, while forging an identity all its own. The movie not only tells the twisty story of how Matvei came to be in the apartment of his girlfriend's parents on a mission to kill her father, it's also a feast for the eyes and ears that uses color in fascinating ways and punctuates the action with a varied score. It's an assured debut from a notable new talent.
In an exclusive interview, Sokolov spoke with CBR from Moscow about what inspired the story of Why Don't You Just Die!, why it isn't a typical Russian movie, and the filmmakers that influenced him.
CBR: How did you come up with the story for this movie?
Kirill Sokolov: You know, it's kind of a revenge movie, and all three parts from different points of view tells [stories] about revenge. When I started to write this story, [the #MeToo movement] was very popular… in Russia, and a lot of my friends, women friends, started to talk about how they were abused in their childhood by their relatives. And suddenly when everybody starts to talk about it… you see that it's a huge problem. And… in Russia, nobody talks about it at all, it's still taboo and we still have this crazy victim[-blaming].
Of course, when you hear [these] kinds of things from people who are close to you, you… feel very bad and you got these… ideas about revenge and all this stuff so, I tried to put it all in one story. But then when you write the script, you write for a year and one theme goes away and another comes, and so it's a little bit changed. But still you can find this echo, it was the starting point for all the story.
Was there something that spoke to you about changing the story as it went? Were there other personal experiences that influenced it?
Of course, yes. It can sound weird, but mostly everything you can see in this movie was taken from real life. Of course, it's… pushed to the limits and it's extraordinary…. For example... this story about a guy who wanted to [take] revenge [on] a father, it's real story. Another story was about a guy who was chained in the bathroom, and all this. I just take a lot of different crazy stories and put it in one.
What attracted you to the more violent style of storytelling?
The thing is, if you look at the script, for example, the script would be much darker and sad and depressing than the movie. And I really wanted to make a fun movie. I really wanted… people [to] enjoy and have fun [while] watching, but [there’s] this really unfunny theme inside of this movie. For example, this extra-violence was made just to make this movie more cartoonish and more unrealistic. To make people remember, "Oh, yeah, [I’m] just watching the movie. Oh, it's too much, it's a kind of gag and it's funny." Because, for example, if you take the same situation, but won’t put any amount of blood, it will be much less easygoing. And so this cartoonish violence and this blood was made to make it less serious.
Were you hoping to convey something specific about life in Russia?
In some ways, of course [laughs]. But I don't know. For example, have you [seen] this kind of context, and for foreigners, is it easy to find [in] this movie? But it's full of political and social thoughts, for example, about the corruption, about this very, very high level of aggression in society now because of the propaganda, all this television stuff. And Russian people are ready to blow up because they are full of anger, and the TV always says that we are surrounded by the enemies and spies everywhere and all this crazy stuff, and people are really angry. They are ready to blow up just after a small [incident].
And the story is about, too, how really people are ready to eat each other and even their closest relatives. And so, of course, this kind of commentary and social and political and corruption and all this stuff, it's all in the movie. But I really didn't want to make a social drama.... But if you try to write as honest as possible, and you put all yourself into it, you can't avoid this [kind] of reflection. And it comes into your story by itself, you can do anything with it.
Is there something that you hope viewers take away from the movie, or do you just want them to have a good time?
I don't know. I just hope that people will enjoy the movie and will have fun. And if somebody will think about something after it, it's cool, but I really don't want to [promote] any kind of idea, so to tell somebody, "Now you have to think about this and this." No! Just have fun, and if you would like, you can think about something [more serious].
I thought the movie was incredibly visually striking. What was your thought process for coming up with the visual palette for the film?
The thing is Why Don't You Just Die! isn't a regular Russian movie. We don't have such… movies, and we really wanted to make each frame full of energy, full of colors, very [propulsive] and to make [an] absolutely different movie [than] usual Russian movies. And it was one reason… why we made it very colorful, and especially we [used] special… colors like this. Absolutely, our normal green, which is kind of sick, and it makes [you] feel that [by] surrounding [the characters with it], people there are not normal, and you feel this illness…. And [the colors help] make this movie more cinematographic than [realistic]. And so we tried to make it… a little bit less realistic. And, of course, I am just a big fan of South Korean movies so I tried to bring some moods from South Korean movies like Park Chan-wook and all those other guys.
Were there other influences on you in the process of making this film?
Yes, yes, of course… I am kind of [a film] nerd. I really like movies very much, and I watched a lot of movies all throughout my life. And I think people who like and watch movies will get more fun from watching Why Don't You Just Die! because you can take any scene and you can easily find references from other movies. For example, there are a lot of Sergio Leone and Western motifs in it and you can hear it with the music or, for example, how we [would] edit their shootout and how people stand in front of each other….
Or as I told you, South Korean [movies], we brought colors from that or this mix of… violence and sincerity. For example, when I wrote [the] script I read a lot of Martin McDonagh. And I really like how he [mixes] very, very, very sad things with very fun and a lot of irony, and kind of it's so bad that it becomes… funny. I really tried to follow this route. There are a lot of [influences]. Danny Boyle, Tarantino, of course, …Rodriguez. I really like a lot of different movies.
It struck me as interesting that the main character, Matvei, was wearing that shirt with the Batman symbol. Why the reference to an American superhero there?
…This story looks a little bit like a Western. We don't know too much about Matvei. He’s a kind of a Clint Eastwood type of character; He appears from nowhere, he provokes some [incident], everybody accuses each other and he [goes] away to nowhere. But I really wanted to make people understand this character and immediately feel something that will help them to follow him. And so I started to [think] about some kind of logo or sign, which helps people to understand this character. And I thought, "Okay, Matvei he is a really nice guy and very young and probably he thinks about himself as a kind of [avenger]." Yes. And the most famous [avenger] from pop culture is Batman.
Now, what about the music? There were so many different styles, but they sort of all blended nicely together. But you don't usually hear those different kinds of music in one movie.
Ah, yes, …this movie is a kind of roller coaster. I wanted to... mix people's feelings about it…. in one scene they are kind of scared, in the second scene they laugh… and then they cry and then they laugh again and something like that. And all the time you're surprised with feelings… And the same with the music. I just jumped from one genre to another, just to always surprise the viewers and to make… this movie as unpredictable as possible.
Because the thing is, when you make a movie in one location for 90% in one apartment, it's kind of difficult to [hold people’s attention] for 90 minutes because it's boring. You get tired from watching [the same setting] very quick. And that's why I tried to build each scene, depending on what is going on, by different ways. For example, one is built exactly like a Western with this editing [like] Sergio Leone and this music.… The next scene is very sensitive with heroes who are lost and they don't know what to do and the shot is very long and the camera flies around them and the music [is] absolutely different. It's the kind of [classical], which helps us to feel. So I just didn't think about [keeping] one genre. I just thought what, in each scene, would work [well].
Your journey to becoming a filmmaker is actually quite interesting, too. Can you talk a little about your path to getting to this point?
I'm a physicist… and I even worked in [a] lab, but as I told you, I always liked movies, and I watched a lot of them. And during my vacation as a physicist, I think we just decided to make a short movie with my friends without any script… And we made one, [then a] second and third.
And then finally, I thought, "Oh, it would be nice to write a script, maybe the movies will be a little bit better." So I started to write the scripts, and we made more, more. And finally, I understood that this hobby brings me more fun than my regular job. And I decided to take a risk and become a filmmaker. And six years later Why Don't You Just Die! appeared.
Do you have any other projects in the works at this point?
Yeah. We are now in pre-production. We [were going] to shoot it in the beginning of May, but thanks to the [corona]virus and self-isolation, we moved a little bit to the summer. But yeah, we are going to shoot an adventure movie. I hope it will be a fun movie with three main characters, three women from one family. And all these three women -- 13 years old, 30 years old and 50 years old -- ...struggle with each other, and this struggle brings a huge chase with stealing cars, with rivers and boats, with shootings, karate, cops and all this stuff. So I hope that it will be a fun movie.
Why Don’t You Just Die!, written and directed by Kirill Sokolov, stars Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Vitaliy Khaev, Evgeniya Kregzhde, Michael Gor and Elena Shevchenko. The movie, in Russian with English subtitles, is currently available on digital HD and comes out April 21 on Blu-ray.