“Nowhere to Run”: Russian director’s first short horror film to be screened at Southern Europe’s largest genre festival

Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival 2022 (FZFF), one of the biggest film festivals in Europe today, opens in Zagreb, Croatia, where, among others, the first horror short film, Nowhere to Run, will be presented to the public for the first time. The work of Russian director, former film critic and journalist Dima Barchenkov. He also acted as the author of the script for the project and produced the film by Vladislav Severtsev (“Bride”, “Dawn”, “Former”).

The story of a young man who can’t get rid of his abusive boyfriend has earned the international title “Dead End”. “By the way, despite the difficult situation in choosing Russian-language films, FZFF is not the only platform where Dead End will be presented. I can’t wait to talk about mind-blowing premieres in other regions, but there’s a time for everything. But whether we will show ourselves in Russia is a big question, ”the author of the film writes on the channel“ Baroque Barchenkov ”.

The shooting of the tape took place in the Moscow and Smolensk regions in August last year, and the main roles were played by Svyatoslav Rogozhan and Yan Tsapnik, the stars of the TV series “Difficult Youth”. What else is worth knowing about the ambitious debut? We learned from its author, Dmitry Barchenkov, on the day of the premiere of the poster and trailer of the movie!

How and when did the idea for the movie first come about?

Three years ago, I had a very complicated, abusive relationship. After they ended, the sense of persecution did not leave me long. Everything is in the past, everything except the obsessive fear of going back to them, again, sorry, of being a “victim”.

Then I figured it out, but the idea of ​​turning the horror into a movie remained. Actually, “Dead End” is about that – and not only. The protagonist, Nick, is trying to get out of such a relationship, but his former abuser continues to follow him everywhere. Then came the idea to talk more about toxic love. So the second line appeared in the movie – a powerful episode played by my beloved Yan Tsapnik and this is the first movie role – Danil Chernov.

A form similar to a video game – directly connected with the main character – was born in April last year. Something seemed to be missing in the rest of the story. The puzzle came together when there was a strong plot twist in the finale. I wanted to somehow deceive the audience and at the same time give in to some of my favorite directors and their films. For example, with David Robert Mitchell and Breaking It Follows or Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead.

How long did the application take?

Working in film journalism for years, I have made contacts, many of which work to find a crew. It is also a great pleasure that the case introduced me to producer Vlad Sevtsev.

Pre-production took a little over a month. It was shot in four shifts, that is, on shooting days. The tape was fully completed in October last year.

How satisfied are you with the final result?

In these recommended conditions, we tried to reach our maximum. The movie is out – that’s the main thing. In indie or indie movies, you always worry that things won’t grow together and the material will remain unfinished in editing areas.

Your movie was welcomed by well-known local filmmakers even before its premiere. Whose name can you tell, what was the feedback?

I’ve managed to show “The Dead End” to a few people whose opinions I respect. And I was incredibly happy to hear that everything really worked. For example, Mikhail and Lili Idov, whose directing, camera work and soundtrack, which is especially important to me, I love very much, also drew attention. We tried to bet on them.

Foreign colleagues also talk about them. For example, producer Andrew T. Hunt, who has a big Canadian company behind him and shot dozens of horror movies (V/H/S94 or Psycho Dismemberer, etc.), directly repeated his own words.

Do you plan to develop the story in a full meter in the future?

Dead end has the potential to be a feature, but for now I’ve focused on other stories. A new, now full-length script has already been written. It is also fear. But there is more drama, pain and anger that goes hand in hand with me and so many others in childhood.

Exit to foreign festivals – how was it given the current conditions? What problems did you encounter?

We’ve submitted quite a few applications – we’ve had a few approvals as well as a few rejections. In general, we are still waiting for a reply. With this year’s festivities, things are not that simple. There is a fear that “Dead End” will stay on the shelf. Many thanks to the fantastic Zagreb Film Festival and other venues for the premiere of our film for their support during this difficult time.

The main reason why your work is worth seeing?

I especially want Dead End to show the future producers of my big movie that I can make a genre that is beautiful, bright and loud, which means something big can be done with me. And it seems that my first short film copes with its task.