Lado Kvataniya Shows the ugly Side of Domestic Violence in Russia

This International Women’s Day, Director Lado Kvataniya depicts the monstrous side of domestic violence in Russia with a dark fairytale music video for Manizha. The music video supports a new app called SILSILA that aids survivors of abuse. Recently signed to Great Guns for representation in Europe and Asia, the Russian director’s gripping new film, ‘Mama’ firmly solidifies him as a significant talent to watch. Written and directed by Lado and produced by Moscow production house Hype Production, the film tells not only a dark story but a very real one for Russian women.

‘Mama’ is an eerie fairytale about a family isolated in the woods. Their seemingly mundane daily life is brutally disrupted every night, when the father becomes a werewolf and violently pursues his wife and daughter. As the mother hides her scars day-in and day-out, the daughter begins to notice strange transformations in her body and, ultimately, nurtures a superhuman strength to face the monster head-on to save both herself and her mother. The film ends with the statistics that up to 36,000 women are abused daily in Russia and that an estimated 14,000 women die each year as a result of domestic violence.

Manizha explains, “The main goal of the film is to act as an awareness campaign to restart the discussion about the decision to decriminalise domestic violence in Russia in 2017. The domestic violence statistics in Russia are no longer accurate and women are left unprotected from abuse in their homes, especially when there’s no previous record on file. First time physical abuse is now prosecuted as an administrative offence rather than a criminal one unless serious bodily harm has been caused.”

This project is an art-manifesto against domestic violence in Russia and consists of a music video and a custom-built mobile app, SILSILA. Created independently, without support from the Russian government or global sponsors, it is a personal project striving to help those in need. SILSILA aims to aid survivors of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. The main feature of the app is a panic button that sends an SOS signal to people whose phone numbers are pre-programmed into a database, as well as a list of psychologists, solicitors, crisis centres, shelters and similar resources.

Commenting on the music video, Manizha continues: “It’s a heavy, important message so the cinematic language, the genre, and the metaphor of the father as a werewolf accentuating that theme were deliberately chosen to attract a young audience – the generation that can hopefully make a difference. The superhero genre is extremely popular amongst the 12-30 age bracket in Russia. We wanted to hook them in with that on the initial, superficial level but hit them with the realisation at the end of the video that it’s a strong, immediately relevant social message – dark message packaged in entertaining content. I strongly believe that the transformation of society through the metaphor and symbolism of art is one of the greatest responsibilities of an artist.”

This powerful piece of work follows closely on the heels of three equally impactful pieces of work from the director: the videos for Nico Cartosio’s ‘Christmas on the Moon’, Leningrad’s ‘Gold’ (produced by fellow Great Gunner and good friend Ilya Naishuller), Tim Aminov’s ‘Orpheus’ and ‘Lovesong’ for Biting Elbows, the band fronted by Naishuller. And it’s not just Lado’s music videos that are turning heads. He has created commercial work for brands such as Adidas, Paypal, Google and Visa, and delivered a new kind of sports film for Reebok’s ‘Be More Human’ campaign, featuring UFC Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Laura Gregory, CEO of Great Guns says: “Lado is one of the most exciting emerging young talents today whose work demands to be seen by a global audience. It’s an absolute honour for us having him join the Great Guns roster and we look forward to creating some powerful work together.”

About Great Guns

Great Guns is an award-winning content and music video production hub, with a reputation for creativity and excellence. The carefully-selected roster includes international feature and TV directors, commercial directors, short film and music video directors and brilliant emerging talent. One of their key skillsets is to match talent to project, in any budget range.

Working across its global network, Great Guns produces high quality creative work for commercials, feature films, music videos, tv, digital, events, installations, photography, documentaries and branded content.

In the last year alone, Great Guns garnered multiple awards including 4x D&AD, 4x Cannes Lions, One Show, Webbys, Berlin MVAs, Creative Circle, Shots, Cristal, 7x Kinsale, Golden Drum, CLIO, APA 50, The LIA Awards and was awarded Epica Production Company of the Year and LIA Europe Production Company of the Year.

Credits:
Written and Directed by Lado Kvataniya
Director of photography | Andrey Krauzov
Hype Production /// RUSSIA, 2019
Executive producer | Murad Osmann, llya Stewart, Ilya Dzhincharadze
Producer | Andrey Samsonov
Co-Producers | Nadezhda Usmanova, Pavel Burya, Olga Mitina
Creative Producer | Manizha
1st Ad | Natasha Deeva
1st AC/ focus-puller | Aleksander Budarin
Camera assistant | Sergey Ivanov
Casting Director | Margo Sayapina
Prosthetics make-up | Andrey Plesovskiy, Evgeniy Mikhaylov
Costume design by Nadezhda Usmanova (modardesigns)
Set dresser | Tamuna Djanashvili
Edit | Vladislav Yakunin
Colour grading | Artem Leonov
Post-Production Producer | Anna Vinnik
Post Production Manager | Suzanna Noruzi
Computer Graphics | Saigam Studio
Mix engineer | Roman Urazov
Sound Design by 433 sound agency
Special Thanks | Alina Rossiyskaya, Nikita Kutepov, Vasily Utkin, Mikhail Goglov, Dmitry Dimchevskiy
Service Producer | Yaroslav Nuvariev
Line Producer | David Kavtaradze
Assistant Producers | Daria Slivkina
Production Designer | Papuna Papaskiri
Production Designer Assistants | Besik Abesadze, Koka Ramishvili, Giorgi Chelidze,
Zviad Gogiashvili, Teimuraz Janezashvili, Levan Kilashvili
Props Master | Zura Gogorikidze
Props Assistants | Giorgi Gogorikidze, Lasha Abramishvili
Make-Up Artist | Madona Chanturia
Make-Up Assistant | Maya Jincharadze
Gaffer | Vazha Aprasidze
Electricians | Shota Khijaradze,
Giorgi Marsagishvili, Misha Saganelidze, Leri Kapanadze, Robert Arqeliani,
Roma Gujabidze, Giorgi Aslamazishvili, Giorgi Chanturia, Beka Kharaishvili
SFX | Master Ioseb Gvasalia, Dato Gvasalia
Location Managers | Irakli Qiria, Nini Sardlishvili, Irakli Chakhnashvili
Super 16mm / KODAK VISION3 500T 7219

CAST | Daughter – Valeriya Korelskaya
Mother – Tatyana Cherkasova
Father – Dmitriy Lavrov
Werewolf – Stanislav Rogachev

Tags:
International Women’s Day, Happy Women’s day, Women’s Day 2019, Great Guns, Hype Production, Russia, Domestic Violence, 433 sound agency, D&AD, Cannes Lions, One Show, Webbys, Berlin MVAs, Creative Circle, Shots, Cristal, Kinsale, Golden Drum, CLIO, APA 50, Music videos, Sound agency, Awareness campaign, award-winning campaign, Lado Kvataniya, Domestic Violence in Russia, Digital campaign