Zemfira Tsakhilova: “I played in many films of the Azerbaijanfilm Studio, and I love the republic!”

Interview by Oleg Kusov. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Interesting guests are always welcomed by Vestnik Kavkaza. Oleg Kusov talks to them not only about the Caucasus. Take My Word is a program which is recorded in video, audio and text formats.

-          Hello! Zemfira, our audience consists of people of different ages. I think young people who are watching us will immediately google who you are. What will they find out? Wikipedia says that you were born in North Ossetia. In 1966 you graduated from the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute. You worked in the Mossoviet Theatre. In 1966-1982 you played more than 30 roles in Soviet films, and in 1993 you founded the center for the development of aesthetics and beauty “Katyusha”, a non-commercial educational facility for children. I think Wikipedia doesn’t know much about you. You have been working in the Mossoviet Theatre for so many years; you have played so many roles. Your cinema roles were significant. “Two Tickets to the Cinema” is a classic. What are your favorite roles?

-          I appreciate my roles in films which were not released for the mass audience and are not demonstrated every week like “Two Tickets.” I was shot by nice film directors in Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia. In general I was an actress of national cinema industries, and my best works are kept in different countries.

-          But they are not lost. There is the internet, where one can find anything.

-          Yes, the internet. But in general they were not popular, and they were not presented to a mass audience. And probably it is for the best.

-          As for theatre, you have been working in the Mossoviet Theatre for years. What are your favorite roles there?

-          When I came there, they immediately give me the role of Saint-Exupery’s wife in “Life of Saint-Exupery.” Saint-Exupery was played by Vadim Beroyev. Me, Tanya Bestayeva and he were the main characters. Some say that the play should be called “Our Ossetian Kishlak,” and I couldn’t convince people that Ossetian villages are not called “kishlak.”

-          It is a well-known story, I’ve heard it from Tatyan Bestayeva. Vadim Beroyev… The current generation would think that you mean his grandson Yegor. I think Vadim Beroyev didn't have enough time to show his talent to its full extent.

-          He was a leading actor in the Mossoviet Theatre. I cannot say that he didn’t show his talent, as he played leading roles; and he treated them seriously. Other actors were impressed by this. He was very reliable. In “Strange Miss Savage” he played the leading role. He was the best artist. He and Gennady Bortnikov. These were heroes of the Mossoviet Theatre. Everybody loved them.

-          Theater-goers. Those who didn’t live in Moscow remember Vadim Beroyev in Major Whirlwind and other films.

-          Before playing in “Major Whirlwind” he was very concentrated. “What’s wrong Vadim?” “My main goal is to play this role. Even theatre pales into insignificance, I have to play the role.”

-          And he succeeded.

-          Yes, he succeeded.

-          You were awarded a prize for playing the biggest number of nationalities in the Soviet Union on the year of the 60th anniversary of the USSR. You have said that you played a Moldovan, an Azerbaijani, a Georgian, a Tajik, a Romanian, a Frenchwoman, an Ossetian, of course. And in “Captain Nemo” you played an Indian. How did you manage to do this? It is not easy. Why did directors see different nationalities in you?

-          It seems my face is universal. Sometimes I took offense, when I came to Turkmenistan, for example, and they said: “You look like a Turkmen.” I thought: “Show me at least one girl who looks like me.” This is not the point. I didn’t divide my roles according to an ethnic principle. The main thing is the essence of a role, its character. Playing an Oriental woman wasn’t enormously difficult for me, as I was raised in a village, so I know the character and can play it well.

-          But a French and a Tajik are absolutely different.

-          This is my job.

-          You were filmed at the Caucasus studios as well; in Baku several films: “The Day After Tomorrow at Midnight,” “A Man Casts Anchor.”

-          It was my first studio. My first film was “Why Are You Silent?” of their classic Seidbeili. I was filmed a lot in Baku, it is true. I love the republic and its cinema. Later I was filmed in Armenia with Armen Dzhigarkhanyan. And the film is one of those which I and Armen have lost.

-          What is it?

-          “A Person Lived.” It was a story about doctors. They both are doctors, and the film is about their family and their job.

-          The setting is in the mountains.

-          Yes, all through the film we take horses, oxen and go from one village to another. It was shot not in Armenia, but in Georgia. We spent two months there.

-          Today some people say that in the Soviet period the republics stagnated and their cultural life was very poor. Is it true? You know the atmosphere very well – the Baku, Yerevan, Tbilisi studios. Was there life?

-          Of course! 3-4 movies were shot simultaneously in Baku, as far as I remember. It is a republican studio. It was the same in Yerevan, I don’t mention Moldova where cinema was treated seriously. People were sent to study in Moscow to shoot national films at home. A lot of attention was paid to this.

-          So students came to Moscow and after graduation returned home, didn’t they?

-          Yes, they did. There were grandmasters there.

-          It means Moscow took care of the cultural development of regions.

-          Of course, first of all, all these films were presented in Moscow, at the House of Cinema. I remember the first runs of all my national movies at the House of Cinema. Halls were always full, and all the cinematographers watched them attentively.

-          In 1993 you created the Moscow children's center of aesthetics and beauty "Katyusha". In one of your interviews you said, I'm going to read your words: "I decided to call the center by the name of the first child who came in advance. Katya Mikhaylovskaya came first. Then she starred in many TV programs: "Sesame Street" in the movie "The Wizard of Oz" and others. And one more thing when we chose the name, I admit honestly, that if someone will invite us abroad, nobody will need to explain what this name means. The name Katyusha is clear to everyone, it is a cutaway.” Have you succeed in the venture?

-           Yes, of course. It is invented by me, I can say today with all responsibility that I am a person, in my place. The fact that I created this place myself, with my own hands, warms me. I think that it is much more important, more necessary and more modern than everything that I did before.

-          Do you mean theater and cinema?

-          Yes, because today this question is about education, cultural education, the education of the person-creator from a young age… It is a school, an official legal educational institution, aesthetics and beauty school center. Children from 4 years go there. As we have not really wide physical conditions, and we also have a lot of people who want it, we take children through a competition. In any case, I consider that children who are internally located in it have to be engaged in our affairs.

-          It is a such a criterion, isn't it?

-          Yes, learning ability is the main thing. 12 teachers are put to each child. Each child is engaged in everything, it's not like this one sings, others dance. If from 4 years to 17, can you imagine what knowledge can be brought to a person? The task is not to teach, the task is to understand yourself from within, teach yourself, to teach yourself to learn, to take out everything from within. And well, of course, dances and so on, we have good teachers. They are only from higher educational institutions, from the Moiseevsky ensemble, from the Birch ensemble, theatrical higher educational institutions. We have acting teachers, teachers of the art world.

-          I stress that your school is not commercial.

-          Yes, parents don’t pay anything.

-          It is quite unusual for our life, when everything is commercial… Is it real? Where do you take money from?

-          One spends one's resources on things which one appreciates. I appreciate the smiles of these children, their development and achievements. And my own children are very helpful.

The full version of the interview can be seen in “Video”