Interview by Oleg Kusov. Exclusively for 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.
- Today our guest is an Honored Artist of Russia, a People’s Artist of North Ossetia, theatre director and actor of the Moscow theatre headed by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Anatoly Dzivayev. Good afternoon, Anatoly!
- Hello!
- I know that you have initiated a very interesting cinema project which touches on complicated events in the Caucasus. You have a script of a film which will be shot this year. Tell us about it.
- I took part in the screenwriting. Mainly the author of the script is Vladimir Gutnov (a North Ossetian screenwriter and journalist).
- It is interesting that in the 1990s Vladimir Gutnov covered inter-ethnic conflicts, as a journalist of a Russian information agency. He knows the story from inside. And he is a talented screenwriter.
- He is a talented person in general. He has a nice sense of humor. The script is titled “Tili and Toli.” The setting is the border between Russia and Georgia, particularly North Ossetia and Georgia. There was no border in the past. There was the Soviet Union. There are two friends who used to live together, drink tea and not only tea. And suddenly a border passes between them. Tili village is on the one side, and Toli village is on the other side. Two friends Bazi and Kakhi live there. They have never thought that a border would separate them. And suddenly border guards appear and don’t let them visit each other. And the two friends don’t understand why, they need visas, and so on. The genre of the film is comedy. I will play a priest who serves Georgians, Ossetians and Russians. There are few residents in the village. There is a cemetery which has to be divided as well, and the church should be divided. How can they do it, if graves are shuffled – a Georgian grave is next to an Ossetian grave which is next to a Russian grave? And border guards say that the border will take a zigzag course. Such a sad thing is presented with humor.
- I hope the project will be implemented.
- I don’t know. I did my best to convince Armen Dzhigarkhanyan and Kakhi Kavsadze to play in it. These are great actors, and I think they should do it. Next year they will celebrate their 80th birthdays. But they should realize our ideas. Dzhigarkhanyan will play the Ossetian and Kakhi Kavsadze – the Georgian. Let’s see what the result will be. The idea is wonderful.
- Moreover, it is interesting because it will be Caucasus cinema – a Georgian, an Ossetian and an Armenian. In one film.
- We should return to our roots, I mean Caucasus cinema. I think there are gaps in it. Great directors perished; traditions are gone. I have recently been to Tbilisi, and I didn’t see an inscription in Russian. I was raised in Georgia in the Crosspass.
- In the Kazbek district?
- Yes. At the moment it is the Dushet district. Kumlistsikhe is my village. Ossetians used to live there. I visited Tbilisi often at the time. I knew the Georgian intelligentsia well. And now I hear only Georgian and English spoken. No girls or boys speak Russian in Tbilisi. They play football, but speak English. Probably it is right. But I think Georgia has lost a lot without Russia. I don’t know what it gained, but it lost a lot. I think today we should become friends again, whether we want it or not. I don’t know who is guilty of what, this is not my business, let historians and politicians deal with that, but one side cannot be guilty of everything. We should become friends. This is my view.
The full version of the interview can be seen in “Video”
