To celebrate the upcoming home release of the hyper-violent, super zany thriller comedy Why Don’t You Just Die!, we sat down with the director Kirill Sokolov to talk about the film and his inspiration.
STARBURST: Congratulations on the film, it’s funny, gory and batshit insane and we loved it! It’s incredibly impressive for a feature-length debut too.
KIRILL SOKOLOV: Thank you so much, it’s so great to hear that audiences are enjoying the film.
How exciting is it that a wider audience can now experience the film?
It’s incredibly exciting – it’s just a shame it won’t be the big screen because of everything that is happening in the world. But it’s still great that they can watch it at home. I hope that this puts Russian cinema on the map for a lot of people.
It’s clear to see that the film is inspired format-wise by the likes of Tarantino and Ritchie whilst sharing a lot of stylish similarities to that of Edgar Wright. Would you say that those filmmakers are your inspiration?
Absolutely. A lot of Russian people don’t know a lot of directors except for Tarantino – so it’s really great that you and others have compared the film style to that of his. I’m a huge lover of film and am inspired by a lot of different creators and genres – especially Spaghetti Westerns which I think comes across in certain scenes in the film. One of the scenes involving the main character Matvei in the bathroom is heavily inspired by your Danny Boyle and his film 127 Hours which I love. But I’d also say that at its core it very much is a Russian film first.
You also wrote the screenplay for the film, where did the idea come from?
It really started during the MeToo movement, where I had a lot of friends and acquaintances come to me and tell me stories of the horrible things that they and their loved ones had endured. So I wanted to write a movie about someone getting revenge because of something tragic that happened to a partner when they were younger.
The majority of the film is set in the confines of a small apartment – what were some of the difficulties you faced creating a relentless dark action comedy in such a small location?
It wasn’t so much that it was difficult as I had always planned to make a film with a small location and limited actors due to not having a very big budget – and finding a producer for this type of film, especially in Russia was probably the most difficult part as a lot of companies and people don’t know how to sell this kind of movie. Once we had a producer, it was great as we were able to build a small set that we could smash up and makes holes in the floors and walls to make sure we could capture all of the action.
What was your favourite scene to shoot?
I loved shooting the whole movie really. But if I had to pick one it would be the opening fight scene as that was a lot of fun. The film does contain a lot of funny dialogue along with the action scenes – so in my next movie which is a chase-action movie, it will have a lot of action and less dialogue than this! [laughs]
Why Don’t You Just Die! is out on VOD & Blu-Ray on April 20th.
