Interview with Natalia Piskova

Interview with Natalia Piskova

Question : Why did you become a film director?

Natalia Piskova : My first profession was as a pianist. I graduated from the master class of the

National Academy of Music. My mother and father supported me in that career. But in Bulgaria you cannot make a living by playing the piano, the option was to leave for abroad. So, I decided to apply for the Higher Courses of Scriptwriters and Film Directors in Moscow. In 1982 I sat for examinations on par with the Russians, who were around 300 candidates. It was pretty scary ... I had to write in Russian and then we had an oral examination. After that the class included 30 students in film directing, another 30 were in the scriptwriting and animation class. We were told that Tarkovsky would accept a class. The others to accept classes were Eldar Ryazyanov, Solovyov, Gleb Panfilov and children’s, many children's film directors wanted to recruit candidates. I signed up for Tarkovsky, but it turned out that the examination would be conducted by Mikhalkov. Forty minutes with Nikita Mikhalkov and Gurchenko - it was scary ... At that time, Mikhalkov had already made his renowned films A Few Days in the Life of Oblomov and Dark Eyes. At that time he worked on Family Relations.

Once enrolled, it turned out that Tarkovsky would not accept a class and we were distributed among the other tutors. I said I'd go to the one who would take me, even though I wanted to study in the class of Panfilov, because I liked him more as a director. And Gleb Panfilov accepted me - I was lucky to study under him. In my class there were only two foreigners - me and a Czech who was an actor. At that time, to apply for the course one should have a university diploma and three years of service. All of us had completed other subjects - acting, academy of music like me. I was the youngest. All in all, of a total of 30 students there were 3 women, one of them was a Georgian - I maintain very good relations with her even today. She is a very good children's film director. We had very interesting professors, starting from Gumilyov, the son of Akhmatova and Gumilyov; we worked with actors - Anatoly Vasiliev - a very famous theatre director who has been working in France for many years now. They chose the most interesting and attractive topics, which had even been forbidden in the other higher education institutions. And they worked for peanuts. In our class there were people from all the then Soviet republics, but only those who stayed in Moscow made a career because the cinematographies in those republics were liquidated. Maybe the animators are the most better off - they went abroad, there is one who won an "Oscar"....

Q : Did you immediately return to Bulgaria after completion?

N . P .: Yes. Two years in an intensive course, then I defended my diploma. Ivan Kulekov, Sasho Tomov and Konstantin Pavlov wrote the scripts for my first course work. I chose that of Konstantin Pavlov – the most strangest of all. My graduation work was after the novel Elegy to a Tree, it was the feature debut of Emil Hristov – until then he had only shot documentaries. There were two cameramen – he and Rali Ralchev. Katya Paskaleva played the main part. At that time Docho Bodzhakov was working on a film on the script of Konstantin Pavlov (Memory - editor's note.) and complained that Katya performed better with me ... The film was sold to the Czech Republic ... it was 1985.

Then I worked as a second director in the studio for feature films. I worked with Mariana Evstatieva, we made Only You, Heart . Then I had to make my debut. We looked for scenarios. Stanislav Stratiev gave me one of his scripts. At that time Sasho Tomov was a hit and we decided to adapt his novel Memory (the movie came out with the title Live Dangerously - editor's note.). Naturally, it was not approved by the official film studio and we chose the "Ekran" film studio. And as one should necessarily have an artistic director, we translated the script, sent it to Panfilov, I sent him samples, it was a long process ... He agreed and his name is present in the film as artistic director.

Q: The film was aired on television, but was it released in the cinemas?

N . P : The film is being aired on television all the time. Recently it was again broadcast on a satellite TV channel, because the topic of the medical error continues to be relevant and should not be ignored. The cast is good - Vanya Tsvetkova, Stefan Danailov, Filip Trifonov, Katya Paskaleva ... But since the film was made in 1989, when the film ended there were comments like : "Cut this dialogue!", "Why does the young hero die?", "Why all are guilty?" ... we had to make a second mixing, we had to cut many takes. The film was sold to television stations of the USSR, Czechoslovakia. It was also sold in Germany, in England and throughout the socialist camp ... For Germany I did a separate version.

Q : What happened then?

N . P : Then there was silence – the so called good times had come after 1990. I brought the film to Moscow, Panfilov spoke very highly of it. He wanted me to work with some of their playwrights. One of their renowned journalists of the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" newspaper - Leonid Nikitinski wrote a script for me, it was about a very cruel case of rape. He predicted all the cruelty of young people in the transition period, which people here could not understand. They were dismayed at the script and nothing came out of it ... I worked at the Committee for Youth and Sports, there I was in charge of cultural activities and young people. Then I had an idea for a youth program. Victor Paskov had become director at the Bulgarian National Television, he approved and things got rolling ... Hacho Boyadzhiev also took the initiative because besides "Ku, Ku", there had been no other youth program.. Meanwhile, after a contest I was appointed at the television and worked there until 2000. But there came Lilyana Popova and the film directors were expelled. Later I was engaged in youth and music programs, all of them related to the cultural sphere. Then I worked on a documentary series - 111,000 sq km – the series focused on municipalities in Bulgaria. All of them were my projects, I'm also their author.

Q : Do you think directing is a male profession, have you ever faced similar statements?

N . P : Yes. The first such opinion was expressed by Nikita Mikhalkov, who said: "I do not take women in my course! They are meant for different things!" While Panfilov had a normal attitude towards women. Ina Churikova is a woman who supports and guides him ...

Q : In your opinion, is there "female worldview" in film directing?

N . P : Interestingly, I have never made "female" films with female characters. Marta Meszaros made films about women's stories. Concerning women film directors, I like Larisa Shepitko, Liliana Cavani – more powerful and globally-minded women directors are to my liking...

Q : Being a female film director have you ever had any difficulties?

N . P : Yes, of course! In principle female film directors are not welcomed at the Bulgarian National Television, although it is full of female directors ... I have an experience with Georgi Gospodinov concerning his Natural Novel. I contacted him through an acquaintance, we made a literary scenario. Ivan Pavlov was our producer. We applied for a subsidy, but nothing happened ... they didn’t approve it ...

Q: Is this project still relevant?

N . P. : Georgi Gospodinov would hardly wish to return to it. I also tried with Fannie Tsurakova - the scenario was based on one of her crime novelettes, we applied to the national television for subsidy, our producer was again Ivan Pavlov, but knowing who the members of the jury would be, and who else would also apply for subsidy, we pulled out our project at the last moment. Stanimir Trifonov scolded me - "Why did you give up! It was so goo d! "

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