The director Ivan I. Tverdovsky, the producer Ekaterina Vaneeva and the cinematographer Dmitry Konkov introduced the film Reverse participating in the Documentary Film Competition of 47th Moscow International Film Festival.
The film tells a story of journalists who arrived to Donbas from various countries to look for truth. And they remained there for the sake of those whose voices were unheard. The dialogues about war and duty, the search of sense amid ruins, working on tragic frames: this film is about those for whom Donbas sheltered the truth.
Ivan I. Tverdovsky: "Our film focuses on the personality of a journalist. Now we receive an immense volume of information, which relates not only to the military conflict, but to all events happening on the planet. There is so much of this information that it seems as if the profession and personality of journalists have become less important, but we wanted to underline the risks and dangers to which people of this profession expose themselves. During the special operation there are few filmmakers aiming to analyze what is happening from an art perspective. At the same time, I understood that a journalist will not be able to shoot a piece about another journalist. That is why my task was to assemble an eclectic story with characters having their inner drama. I do not know what happens in 10-15 years, but in the film I wanted to depict myself and people I see and whose stories I hear right now. For me it was a hard path, because at some point, after documentaries I liked feature films because there you do not work with reality in this way but escape it".
Ekaterina Veneeva: «Despite endless strikes, I was absolutely calm inside, as I very much wanted us to show people from around the world our characters who came to Donbas from other countries, with their countries abandoning them, and some of the characters could not even meet their families. So, I want as many people as possible to see and hear them".
Dmitry Konkov: "When people in big cities, staying in their apartments, hear a blasting sound, they usually intuitively run to the windows and look through the glass, but when I and the sound engineer came to do some reshoots for the film and heard several blasts at 11 pm causing glass panes to shatter, I understood it was not safe. We just hid ourselves in our rooms. And those blasts you here in films are strikes indeed".
The film tells a story of journalists who arrived to Donbas from various countries to look for truth. And they remained there for the sake of those whose voices were unheard. The dialogues about war and duty, the search of sense amid ruins, working on tragic frames: this film is about those for whom Donbas sheltered the truth.
Ivan I. Tverdovsky: "Our film focuses on the personality of a journalist. Now we receive an immense volume of information, which relates not only to the military conflict, but to all events happening on the planet. There is so much of this information that it seems as if the profession and personality of journalists have become less important, but we wanted to underline the risks and dangers to which people of this profession expose themselves. During the special operation there are few filmmakers aiming to analyze what is happening from an art perspective. At the same time, I understood that a journalist will not be able to shoot a piece about another journalist. That is why my task was to assemble an eclectic story with characters having their inner drama. I do not know what happens in 10-15 years, but in the film I wanted to depict myself and people I see and whose stories I hear right now. For me it was a hard path, because at some point, after documentaries I liked feature films because there you do not work with reality in this way but escape it".
Ekaterina Veneeva: «Despite endless strikes, I was absolutely calm inside, as I very much wanted us to show people from around the world our characters who came to Donbas from other countries, with their countries abandoning them, and some of the characters could not even meet their families. So, I want as many people as possible to see and hear them".
Dmitry Konkov: "When people in big cities, staying in their apartments, hear a blasting sound, they usually intuitively run to the windows and look through the glass, but when I and the sound engineer came to do some reshoots for the film and heard several blasts at 11 pm causing glass panes to shatter, I understood it was not safe. We just hid ourselves in our rooms. And those blasts you here in films are strikes indeed".