Reverse Motion

Born on 24.12.1975 in Vilnius, Andrey Stempkovsky has studied in Moscow. His first higher education was gained at the Finances Academy of the Government of the Russian Federation, from which he graduated in 1999. Following graduation he worked as a journalist and photographer for a series of Moscow publications. In 2005, he enrolled on the Higher Courses for Directors and Screenwriters. He won in 2007 the international human rights protection film competition organized by the Goethe Institute (Liza, First Prize). Liza was also shown in the special screenings program at the Berlinale-2008 festival. Reverse Motion is his first feature film. "I wanted to make a film about a shocked consciousness and the indifferent nature of fate which always has one victim or another in its sights. About the pointlessness of modern warfare and the arid world that awaits the non-victor, about delaying the unavoidable and the irreversible force of that which is unavoidable. Talking with the director of photography about the film we were planning to make, we kept coming back to the need for a special ‘frozen' form that would best convey the condition of the characters. I also insisted that we didn't use any of the widely used tricks that influence viewers: We didn't film any spectacular action – in fact, all the action is left out of the frame. We shot little in the way of the sort of close-ups that are always a powerful emotional medium.The selection of the actors was very important, and it was very hard work for them – the long pauses, the emotional states their characters were in and the absence of the props that actors can usually rely on required incredible talent."