EXCLUSIVE: Soji Arai, star of the current collection Pachinko and Tokyo Vice, is about for the lead position in Penthouse, an indie thriller from Yakutian filmmaker Stepan Burnashev. Starring reverse him is Irina Mikhailova, an actress additionally from the Russian republic of Yakutia, who led Burnashev’s earlier movie Our Winter.
Presently in manufacturing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Penthouse facilities on a younger couple, Saina (Mikhailova) and David (Arai), who transfer from the U.S. to Kuala Lumpur, settling into an opulent penthouse with hopes of beginning a brand new life. Nevertheless, their goals shortly flip right into a nightmare. Saina begins listening to unusual noises and seeing a ghost, dropping her grip on actuality. David believes that is simply her exhausted thoughts enjoying tips, attributing it to postpartum melancholy, stress, and fatigue. However when Saina begins suspecting that her husband is perhaps concerned in these “supernatural” occasions, the excellence between fact and phantasm blurs. Is there actually a ghost haunting their house, or is David hiding one thing way more terrifying?
The manufacturing of Penthouse is being dealt with by Aquila Emas Sdn Bhd in Malaysia and Saidam Baryl LLC in Kyrgyzstan. Burnashev wrote the script with Alexey Ambrosiev and is producing alongside Syarizan Md Isa, with Arai, Vitaly Yakovlev, and Semyon Yakovlev serving as government producers.
“This undertaking was born on the Busan Worldwide Movie Competition final yr, the place we met Syarizan Md Isa through the movie market, and we determined we may make a movie collectively. My spouse and I then traveled to Malaysia to satisfy him,” Burnashev shared. “We stayed in an condo the place my spouse heard unusual female and male voices at evening, as if somebody was strolling across the kitchen and front room. All of the sudden, it got here to us that this might be the premise for an attention-grabbing story, however with an unconventional strategy—it’s a narrative in regards to the folks we fall in love with and the way they will change drastically in relationships.”
Burnashev defined that the story is “additionally about childhood traumas, which everybody has, and the way they will have an effect on folks’s lives, particularly in relationships. Many individuals expertise postpartum melancholy, which at first look looks like a easy subject, however in actuality, it runs a lot deeper. We discover all of this in our movie, which is completely fictional, but brings collectively a number of cultures, languages, and traditions.”
Arai, who linked with the filmmaker whereas serving as a jury member on the Bishkek Movie Competition, mentioned his draw to worldwide co-productions like Penthouse, which he views as “important to the way forward for movie,” in addition to the non-public resonance for him of tales “that deliver visibility to minority experiences.”
Continued the actor, “For filmmakers, highlighting minority communities is important: folks must see the minority neighbors round them quite than preserve them invisible.”
Gaining widespread consideration along with his efficiency in Apple TV+’s drama Pachinko, which returned for its second season in August, and Max’s just lately wrapped crime drama Tokyo Vice, Arai has additionally been seen on collection together with Useless Ringers, Cobra Kai, Legacies and S.W.A.T.
Burnashev has directed 14 movies and labored as a screenwriter, editor, or producer on greater than 30 tasks. Considered one of his most well-known movies, Aita, was launched in 2023 and shortly grew to become the highest-grossing movie in Yakutia earlier than being banned by Russian authorities for allegedly selling nationalism, sparking widespread debate and controversy.
Arai is repped by Luber Roklin Leisure.
