Director Alexei Mizgirev - a man from the arthouse environment

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Domestic screenwriter and director Alexei Mizgirev, whose films are currently highly appreciated by the audience and film art experts, was born in July 1974 in the provincial town of Myski, Kemerovo Region. Following his creative vocation - film directing - Mizgirev was a long one.

Student years

After successfully graduating from school, the future director enters the Faculty of Philosophy of Tomsk State University, after graduation he goes to conquer the capital. Arriving in Moscow, Alexei Mizgirev enters the directing department of VGIK. A significant influence on the formation of the director's creative style is exerted by his mentor - the master of the course, the master of domestic directing Vadim Abdrashitov, whose works are distinguished by an emphasis on moral issues. During the training, Alexei was lucky to take part in the filming process of the film "Magnetic Storms", which was directed by Abdrashitov. In addition, the diligent student repeatedly took part in student festivals, representedto the judgment of classmates their author's projects.

Debut

Aleksey Mizgirev made his film debut in 2005, acting as one of the directors of the crime series Kulagin and Partners. His first independent work is the social crime drama "Flint" (2007). From his VGIK mentor V. Abdrashitov, who was the chairman of the jury of the Kinotavr festival, the aspiring director received two awards at once. Critics appreciated Mizgirev's debut project: some called the film the new Brother 3, others compared the project with Abdrashit's Plumbum, or Dangerous Game.

A Tale of Darkness

The director's next work, the social drama "Tambourine, Drum", caused the most controversial reviews, it was even actively discussed in the State Duma. The cinematic work, in which Mizgirev acted as a director and screenwriter, was positioned by film critics as a masterpiece of the domestic film industry. The director did not aestheticize the drama, did not admire it, which many of his colleagues in the workshop sin, hiding behind the author's vision. Alexei Mizgirev told the story clearly and even a bit coldly. At the same time, if his directing was almost flawless, meeting all professional parameters and requirements, then in the script, experts managed to find about a dozen errors and minor flaws.

Magical Realism

Alexey Mizgirev, whose filmography currently includesmore than a dozen films, in 2012 at the Berlin Film Festival presents a new project - the drama film "Convoy". After the premiere screening, the entire festival community and the press unanimously put this tape on the list of Russian films that must be viewed.

Russia of the 2000s, torn apart by lawlessness, is presented in the drama as a mystical state, where, according to the laws of the genre, there is absolute evil, helpless goodness and a knight who does not want to switch sides. According to foreign film critics, Mizgirev's drama is similar to a comic book about a superhero. At the same time, despite the gloominess and the absence of a happy ending in the conventional sense, the picture ends on a positive note.

Alexey Mizgirev in 2016 made the film "Duelist". His riskiness, excitement turned the project into something more than just an exciting and good film.