Art is not some sort of guideline for understanding. It's a thing unto itself.

Art is not some sort of guideline for understanding. It's a thing unto itself.

Observing life, living through it. As you experience life some events call upon you to suffer through them and that's what brings inspiration.

Most Russians don't treat the government, or those in power, as something close to them. They don't believe that they, as ordinary people, are able to change the development of things. That's why they have a very specific ironic sentiment towards power and the figures that represent it. I wanted to translate this irony into the cinematic language.

There are things which are without answers, and there is nobody who can explain them. Either we feel them and sense them, or not. Sometimes we just give up and carry on.

The most important thing for me is the image, not the thought.

Church, the spiritual power, and the executive power are working today united in a system that confronts people. This alliance or cooperation between the spiritual power and the executive power, between the church and the government, unfortunately takes away the Church's basic mission. It takes away their right to speak on moral or ethical subjects.