‘Sticker’ director on seeing the movie Eric Roberts: ‘He called it a modern ‘Pretty Woman’

Now in Russian cinemas you can watch not so many new films, the more valuable each of them becomes. On Thursday, for example, the Russian thriller “Sticker” about a talented architect with Ivan Stebunov and Alexander Samoylenko in the lead roles will be released.

The link to the film, as the director of the film Dmitry Baran said, he sent to the wife of actor Eric Roberts – Eliza. She gave her husband a family viewing, after which he decided to record a video in support of the film, calling it “modern” Pretty Woman “with a good detective intrigue.”

The main characters of the picture are a young, successful, talented architect Mikhail (Ivan Stebunov) and a beautiful girl Natasha (Evgenia Nokhrina), who appears in his life one night as a call girl. This relationship was not supposed to continue, but soon Natasha gets a job in Mikhail’s office, only now her name is Olga. And it no longer seems like a coincidence. Trying to understand who she is, the hero feels the danger emanating from her, but still falls in love. He even wonders if Richard Gere’s character will marry Julia Roberts after the end credits? Meanwhile, a competitor is trying to “squeeze” Mikhail’s dream project – an elite facility under construction on the Kremlin embankment.

Julia’s sibling is an Oscar nominee for his role in Runaway Train, Eric Roberts appreciated the plot twist, which mixes an international romantic plot with a purely Russian corruption thriller and a detective story with a clue to the heroine’s secrets.

This is a very exciting and unpredictable story in which no one will guess until the last frame what game the heroes are playing and how it will all end,” says Ivan Stebunov. – And also this film is about the psychology of a successful man, in which the need to love and be loved is struggling with distrust in the object of desire and in himself. It seems that she is the one from his dreams, but how to understand the nature of her feelings – are they genuine or is she driven by commercialism? This is a very common male experience, which is not too common to talk about.

For Evgenia Nokhrina, who already has 32 films in her filmography, this role is a professional breakthrough. Here she is a fatal, dramatic heroine who actually takes control of the hero’s life. Despite the fact that the protagonist of the sticker is a man, the engine of this story is undeniably a woman.

I am very grateful to Dmitry that he saw in me something new, interesting for me. Usually directors see in me cute naive girls, about whom everything is clear from the first frames. The heroine of “Sticker” was a serious challenge for me, but it ignited me. I can’t tell you who she is, because this is the main intrigue, but we are completely different from her, and in order to understand the logic of her actions, I needed serious work with myself. That’s why I, Zhenya, don’t act like Olga, I don’t think like she does. I needed to get into her skin, to become her.

Mikhail’s hostile rival, the oligarch of Tulonsky, is played by Alexander Dyachenko. Almost all of his scenes were filmed in Dubai – on a yacht and in the third terminal of the Dubai airport, owned by Emirates. Filming at the airport was coordinated for a long time and difficult, but as a result, the terminal was provided to the film crew for free. Then, three years ago, the Emirates launched a whole program to encourage filming films on their territory and most likely wanted to increase their tourist attractiveness, including for Russians with yachts. True, Toulon’s yacht belongs to one of the Arab sheikhs.

It was much easier to negotiate with the sheikhs than with the Russian oligarchs, – Dmitry Baran laughs, – they are much more open, accessible and accommodating.

Another tourist attraction is the island of Mahe in the archipelago of the Seychelles, a paradise where the characters of the film escape to test their feelings. And although the Seychelles have not closed off from the Russians, now few people can afford such a trip – except perhaps on the screen.

Dmitry Baran says that all the characters in the film are based on real characters:

I know each of them personally. And the main character is kind of my alter ego, but the story is not autobiographical. Life, of course, is the best screenwriter, but stories from life often do not look cinematic and convincing on the screen. For the viewer to believe, a real story must be invented.

During the period of creation of the picture – almost 5 years – Dmitry Baran appealed to the opinion of the audience several times and even collected focus groups.

By first education I am an engineer-physicist, – says the director. – Probably, that’s why cinema for me is a big research work. Study of audience preferences and expectations. Cinema is a very complex product, that is, a product that consists of a huge number of small parts, like a large passenger plane. And every such small detail is very important. Otherwise, the plane will not fly, and the movie will not work. Therefore, cinema cannot be designed initially without errors. But it is possible during the tests to select what works, discarding everything superfluous.

Even the name “Sticker” was determined by the audience – the producer and director offered them to choose from 12 options. Why “Sticker”?

Because this has never happened, – Dmitry answers shortly.