By Eric J. McEntee
AFI FEST Daily News

The narrative of this caustic film, A LAKE, maintains an intrinsic relationship to the location and manner in which it was shot. Its characters are sparse in both speech and action and their connections are forged in highly dramatic gestures laden with coldness and austerity that reflect the silent way nature incites character. This film is highly sensational and stirs the viewer’s sense of the drama by attacking the senses, completely surrounded them in its world. It is a far cry from a meditation on the wilderness, but in its ascetic characterizations and varied styles of photography–ranging from abrasive camera movements to absolutely stunning nature portraiture–it affirms a contemplative environment of its own. I was fortunate enough to speak with the lead in the film, Dmitry Kubasov (who plays the role of Alexi), and to hear him reflect on his experiences during its making.

Q. Can you talk about the sort of demands that were pressed upon you by having to shoot in this location and for your particular character?

A. First of all, it was necessary to Philippe [Grandrieux, the director] that the actor playing Alexi did not know the French language, and in the film it was also necessary to speak in French, which is unusual. But having read the scenario I understood that it was justified and it does not cause any confusion. My hero lives in a space which is isolated from the rest of the world. He never sees other people, other life. Therefore he also speaks in a very specific way.

Q. What was relayed to you about the characters, and the film, before starting this production? Did you have a good sense of what the movie was going to be from the script?

A. Before shooting I asked Philippe many questions concerning my character. The most important question for me was to find out who Alexi actually is. What is the essence of his character? Philippe told me that Alexi is comparable to an artist like Goya. He is like someone “without a skin” who has a painful sensitivity to the world. This is distinguished in his ability to see and feel the world in ways that a normal person cannot. And this relates to his epilepsy attacks.

Q. Did you and the others question the character dynamics or did you all fall into the characters easily by being enveloped in such an insular environment?

A. Philippe had given me the chance to become Alexi. Not to play Alexi but to become him, to be him. Philippe told me: “Trust me.” And I believed in what he was doing. Philippe is one of the few directors who works toward “pure cinema,” a kind of filmmaking that is engaged in the search for lost cinema. For him what is important in cinema is the art, the initial sense of it, the cinema that is not embellished with theater (actor’s skill, dramatic art, a plot). Philippe is interested in the pure state of cinema that existed for the first thirty years of the 20th century. Directors like Sokurov, Buñuel and Epstein are close to him.

Q. Please discuss the sparse dialogue and grave movements for the characters in the film.

A. In A LAKE there is not much dialogue because it is not important that it be there . . . Initially Philippe was a director of documentary films so consequently he is very demanding with actors. He would want to achieve absolute existence from his actors in every shot. Working with this character, at some point I understood that I was close to having a dual personality. After I returned to Moscow, I could not get rid of Alexi for a long time. The condition Alexi has could possibly be called something like “border-land,” and it was a very difficult condition to be in all the time. It sapped my strength. But at the same time it was a high.

Q. Can you talk about the connection Alexi and Hege have in this film?

A. Alexi loves his sister. For him she is the most important thing. They do not have sex. It is more than sex. And consequently, when Hege falls in love, for Alexi it is equivalent to a huge change, it is a loss of biography for him. It turns life into a drama.

Eric J. McEntee writes at Coupé Cinema.