In far Eastern Russia, there's just some towns that time has forgotten. I guess they used to maybe be industrial or something that are now there's just lots of rusty hulks of buildings and a lot of people wandering around, a lot of alcoholism and violence because people have got nothing to do and no work. Yet people were very generous.

I think if you're going on thinking oh, I can do this with my eyes shut, then it's probably not the right thing to be doing, you know.

I wanted to make sure that I was making films about the world. So I thought well, I should go and see it. I'm spending a lot of time in - we call them caravans in Britain.

As a child I was taken to the pantomime or the theatre and I would always, always fall in love with somebody on the stage. And want to have sex with them.

I like to dance, but it's not my weekend activity. I'm not a clubber.

From there I did a one year theatre acting course in Fife, and then three years of drama school in London.

I would tend to be drawn to independent cinema as a viewer, probably more than the big blockbuster.