EXCLUSIVE: Alexander Rodnyansky is a self-confessed “man of many lives” however now, three years after being compelled to flee his residence in Moscow for being a vocal critic in opposition to the warfare in Ukraine, the Kyiv-born producer is returning to his documentary roots. The Leviathan and Loveless producer and former founding father of Ukraine’s first indie TV community 1+1, has practically wrapped filming a brand new documentary, Notes of a True Felony, which he produced and directed.
“It’s known as that as a result of I’m a legal now,” quips Rodnyansky, referring to the eight-and-a-half yr sentencing in absentia he acquired from a Moscow courtroom final yr for spreading anti-war sentiments.
Coming from an extended line of documentarians – his grandfather was a documentary filmmaker, and his nice aunt was pioneering Soviet filmmaker Esfir Shub (The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty)– it’s maybe becoming that the Oscar-nominated producer is returning to the documentary area at a time when world political unrest is at a excessive.
The venture, he says, will mix components of doc films he shot on the finish of the Chilly Warfare coupled with newer footage from the warfare in Ukraine and WWII footage obtained by his household.
“I used fragments of the films I did on the finish of the Soviet Union occasions, as a result of I began out as a director, in addition to fragments of flicks performed by my mother and grandfather throughout World Warfare II,” Rodnyansky tells Deadline, including that footage within the documentary incorporates battlefield scenes, prisoner of warfare footage and trials.
“It’s a really private assertion which tells the story by way of one household virtually,” he says. “It begins with the start of the warfare after which goes backwards and forwards. I shot the withdrawal of the Soviet military from Jap Germany in 1990 and, I say it within the film, however I had a sense that these folks weren’t getting back from the warfare however that they have been shifting to the warfare. Yesterday they have been troopers of 1 military and residents of the identical state, and now they’re coming to completely different nations and turning into residents of various states and troopers of various armies.”
Rodnyansky, who expects to have the venture completed subsequent month, says he’s at present speaking to main worldwide movie festivals with the hope it would get a competition circuit run within the fall.
The venture is considered one of many on Rodnyansky’s bustling slate. Since 2022, the producer, who lives between Los Angeles and Italy has been steadily constructing a roster of European and worldwide initiatives with ties to Hollywood by way of his AR Content material banner.
At current, he’s obtained 5 completely different films at varied phases of manufacturing: Kornél Mundruczó’s Place to Be with Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi, which simply wrapped in Australia; Mundruczó’s On the Sea with Amy Adams, which is in post-production; Laszlo Nemes’ father-son drama Orphan, which he produces with Good Chaos, additionally in post-production; Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough starrer Butterfly Jam, the English-language debut from Kantemir Balagov; and Jessica Chastain starrer Goals from director Michel Franco, which launched in Berlin earlier this yr and was purchased by Greenwich Leisure for North America.
“We’re growing the following initiatives with all of those administrators, most of that are the in English language save for Lazslo which shall be in is Hungarian,” he says.
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Teorema
Rodnyasky can be coming off the again of Debriefing the President, a restricted collection primarily based on John Nixon’s guide of the identical title. Joel Kinnaman stars on the former CIA analyst who wrote the non-fiction guide about his expertise of being the primary American to establish and interrogate Saddam Hussein following his 2003 seize. The drama is ready to play on TNT originally of subsequent yr.
Rodnyansky produced the collection with Leslie Greif, and it was due to the latter’s expertise on non-scripted initiatives corresponding to Chasing Mummies and Opening the Tombs of Golden Mummies that led to the venture being produced in Egypt.
“We needed to do it in an Arabic nation, and we checked all of the nations of the area and located that Egypt was good for us, talking on the worth and high quality {of professional} groups,” he stated. “There’s no rebate, however we have been the primary large U.S. manufacturing there and we have been so welcome there. And due to Leslie, we have been capable of arrange the manufacturing actually shortly on the market.”
Rodnyansky has made a profession out of capturing movies exterior of the U.S. and when pressed about President Trump’s menace to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made movies, he acknowledged that “it’s going to harm everybody” however he’s cautious that the proposal will even occur.
“Even Barbie was shot exterior of the U.S. The place will you discover an American film not shot exterior of the U.S.? We did Place to Be in Australia and this film is ready in New York and Chicago and we did it due to the costs. Making films in America may be very pricey and costly. It’s undoubtedly an enormous problem for everybody however I don’t consider it’s going to occur. It’s a really dangerous thought and would undoubtedly query the dominance of the American movie business.”
He continued: “In the intervening time all native industries are flourishing and should you see what’s happening, it’s a lot simpler to arrange a film in lots of different locations on this planet. It’s very worldwide this enterprise and I’m speaking to traders across the globe – Indian, Arabic and Europeans and that’s a lot simpler and faster.”
For his subsequent slate of movies, he’s seeking to shoot all of them exterior of the U.S., particularly in Jap European nations corresponding to Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Lativa and different territories. “It’s so arduous to shoot within the U.S.,” he says. “For Butterfly Jam, we did the budgets for New Jersey, Toronto and Calgary and we lastly determined to set the manufacturing in Europe as a result of prices are too excessive.”
