It’s always wonderful to watch a filmmaker who keeps getting better with age. In fact, I dare declare that his latest ‘Dear Comrades!’ is Andrei Konchalovsky’s greatest film. Why? Well, that’s an answer you will need to figure out for yourself, but do watch this gem in the U.S. as it streams starting Christmas Day 2020 for a one-week virtual run thanks to the Film Forum.

Personally, I am spellbound by Konchalovsky’s work. From his earlier collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky to his Hollywood adventures — ‘Runaway Train’ based on a story by Akira Kurosawa is to me the perfect film — from ‘House of Fools’ and his use of one Bryan Adams song as the focal (well sonar actually) point of the story, to the tragic and deeply moving ‘Paradise’, The Maestro, as I like to call him, makes films that sit in the inner crevices of my soul. And stay there forever!

I was incredibly fortunate to be asked to moderate a virtual masterclass with Konchalovsky during this year’s Cairo International Film Festival. We met up on Zoom, he from his house in Tuscany, me in London and were broadcast on a big screen to a live audience at the Cairo Opera House. In his typical style, Konchalovsky makes nothing easy at first, even a conversation is prefaced by a bit of a test for the person asking the questions. But as my love for his work became immediately apparent, the masterclass ended up being a great success.

So, if I had to explain why Konchalovsky’s films appeal so deeply to me, what would I say? That his women characters are always the entree in his films and often his male roles seem like the parsley sprinkled around them to enhance the presentation. Embodied often by his real-life wife Julia Vysotskaya, women like Lyuda in ‘Dear Comrades!’ appeal to my sense of womanhood, to my inner strength but also on a very basic aesthetic level. Lyuda is elegant, in her clunky shoes and with her hungry, lean body, as are the men around her. First and foremost Konchalovsky is a true artist, always loyal to the visual — the most important aspect of the seventh art.

Want to know more about ‘Dear Comrades!’ — well here is the synopsis of the film as listed in the press kit: “When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist.” It gives you both everything you need to know and nothing. Because the film is about so much more and you, the audience, bring to it.

Watch it now on Film Forum online and thank me later for this perfect Christmas present!

Following are a couple of questions from our masterclass — courtesy of this year’s Cairo Industry Days.

Would you tell us a bit about your childhood and growing up in Moscow?

Nothing special except that I was studying music, my mother wanted me to be a musician and I got accustomed to everyday torture — doing piano lessons. I didn’t like it during the first ten years then I started to like it. 

But I quit I and decided to learn filmmaking in film school. I was lucky because my family is a family of artists. My grandfather and great grandfather are artists, my father is a writer and my mother is a writer. We had the company of friends who were filmmakers and writers and I got accustomed to conversations that I didn’t understand but realized it was something important. Let’s put it this way. 

I was born before the Second World War and spent some time during the war in the Far East then returned [to Russia]. I could speak about it a couple of hours, or five hours or ten hours but it’s not relevant today.

I’d argue that everything has brought you to the place where you are today. So it’s relevant but why it’s interesting to me, is that you were trained as a musician and yet a lot of your films don’t feature a soundtrack in the traditional sense. ‘Dear Comrades!’ doesn’t use a soundtrack to manipulate the audience. And in the case of ‘House of Fools’ there is a particular song that is important as almost a standalone character for the film. Can you talk about the important of music in your films — or the importance of silence?

Silence is the best music you can hear.

Of course I went through different ways of using music, but music itself per se is not something that cinema cannot exist without. The similarity between music and film is more important than functional music in the music industry. The similarity between them is that they both develop in the time span. It means that you cannot play music backwards, if you do you won’t understand it. As in life it develops from past to present to future. It’s like being on a boat that goes with the flow in a river. In that sense cinema and music are very similar. Also film exists only in the present, you don’t know what is going to happen, maybe sometimes you know what is going to happen and in mediocre films you definitely know what is going to happen. In that sense, life is richer than our logic, and life is always unpredictable but always logical. You always can explain retroactively why it happened this way. Film is an interesting way to peel down the sense of life. It’s like you peel an onion — in some big masterpieces of films there are many layers that you have to peel, some layers you will never achieve until you study them a lot.

Do you think filmmakers are prophets or are you simply more in tune with the world around you and see the trends sooner than the rest of us?

It’s a big illusion when we think that saying contemporary means talking about something that is actually in the news. We’re not journalists, who talk about something that is very actual. Art, in my opinion, is something that talks to your senses and talks to your imagination. If your imagination is not included and if the image is not suggestive, then you have a fast food. Kind of pre-digested. And of course there can be very popular films that are very nice as entertainment, you can even say it’s creation — but it’s not art. Art means talking about something that really makes you laugh, cry and be scared. If not, even if you you are watching a very cool movie but don’t remember in two days what you’ve seen — it’s wonderful entertainment. It’s entertainment but not art, from my understanding. 

Life itself is something that is hidden behind what we see. It’s like we have a screen between real life and us. It can be a television screen or it can be our perception but it’s still a screen. The screen gives you certain illusions that you know what is the truth. But if you find yourself alone in the forest on a dark night, you suddenly understand that there is more than you think. Because your senses become more alert.

Everything that is visible has an invisible side. 

All artists see something behind the obvious image, something that cannot be explained by words. In my films in the last ten years I have been interested to see the dark side of the moon. Because we don’t know what is there, maybe a very boring thing, but we’re imagining something because there is a big secret. 

Last year Mohamed Hefzy, the president of the Cairo Film Festival signed the “50/50 by 2020” pledge, to have equal representation of women filmmakers included in world cinema festivals. However, you’ve been a critic of this idea of equal representation over actual worth as a measure of choosing films for a competition festival program. And yet your films are the most perfect representations of women’s strength and courage in cinema. Your women characters are so well rounded. How do you reconcile these seemingly opposite views?

It’s nothing to do with gender I think. You know film is not a sport. Film is an art and some year can be very fruitful for women directors and some male directors will make horrible movies. And some other year can be more fruitful for men directors. I don’t think it’s a good idea to make gender important to represent. If the whole Cannes Film Festival was made with the best films made by women, and not a man — if it happens, good! We have to think not who made the film but how deep is their understanding of the world. My characters, you know Julia [Vysotskaya] is a wonderful actress, I’m quite lucky I realized it after we got married. My latest film ‘Dear Comrades!’ I was doing Sophocles in Cologne and Julia was playing Antigone. I was completely taken away by her inner dimension. And I realized she could do something very tragic. And that’s why I wrote the role for her in my film. Some images can be the utter experience of tragedy in film. Only one image. For example I remember the Oliver Stone film ‘Platoon’ and there is an image of a soldier that is on his knees, with his hands up. He’s left and the chopper has flown away without the soldier — extraordinary wonderful image that gives you the full view of tragedy. Some images can stay in my imagination and memory as the utter experience of tragedy. In the behavior is different. Actors should be able to be not a sprinter but a long distance runner. To be able to run a long distance and keep their energy. For tragic actors it’s a great challenge always. 

The elusive Oscar, which of course was never awarded to cinematic greats like Alfred Hitchcock or Luchino Visconti and many other legendary filmmakers for their films. How do you feel being in such great company or is winning an Academy Award still something you would love to achieve? 

It’s always nice to get a present. It’s like in a sense a very childish thing to get a present. You know when I was living in the U.S. and I was thinking to make my career in Hollywood… I was lucky to get into Hollywood when it was still on the summit of diversity. Unfortunately not any more for different reasons. When I was there, at the end of 70’s beginning of the 80’s Coppola, Scorsese, Woody Allen, Truffaut, who wasn’t there? Kurosawa just left, Hollywood was very international — Hollywood mixing with European classical things and it was very cosmopolitan. Then came the period of ‘Star Wars’ and Hollywood became more geared towards blockbusters and teenage audiences. Everyone slowly crawled away. Scorsese went to NY, Coppola to San Francisco, etc, etc. In that sense, that time I was dreaming about having an Oscar because it was a guarantee, my pass to future films. I think success it’s not a box office. And I think in Hollywood there is a certain uncertainty, every filmmaker in Hollywood thinks if he’s going to get a next film. Not this one he’s shooting but to make a next one. That means success. 

These days, I can do whatever I want without an Oscar. Of course it’s great if your film is appreciated by a highly professional bunch of people. What can be more nice than your colleagues giving you a prize — it’s a wonderful feeling of pride. 

Watch ‘Dear Comrades!’ now streaming.