FROM HATRED TO LOVE

Lada Akimova
06.11.2004
eng.mosfilm.ru

Scoring of the new film On Upper Maslovka by the well-known director Konstantin Khoudyakov, based on a story by Dina Rubina, is being worked on at Mosfilm.

This is the story of the relationship between a 95-year old sculptress and the young man Petya, a might-have-been artist who is disappointed in art, not to say in life. They have congenial tastes and similar attitudes to life, but the drama in their relationship is derived from the fact that they were born in different times and have an enormous difference in age. They both suffer from this difference.

As Alisa Freindlikh admits, her heroine is a mineral who can hardly be called a woman at all. She is a creature. With absolutely a man's character. Even when dying, she still loves life in all its manifestations. The phenomenal love of life and optimism of the hateful old woman infects Petya as well. It appears that there is but one step not only from love to hatred but the other way around as well.

Alisa Freindlikh really worked wonders on the set: how did she come by those transparent senile eyes staring into the emptiness and what seems to be a completely toothless mouth?