Ernar Nurgaliev was born in 1985 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He is a director and clipmaker. He graduated from the Art Academy n.a. T. Zhurgenov, painting department. After working as an editor for four films, he did his feature debut in 2018 with “Sisitay”. His latest work, “Sweetie, You Won't Believe It” had a great festival run having its world premiere at the Warsaw Film festival, followed by Sitges and PÖFF among others.
On the occasion of its latest screening at Fantasia International Film Festival, we speak with Ernar Nurgaliev about the inspiration behind the film, psychology and bank loans, humor and horror, and the Kazakhstan movie industry.
What was your inspiration for the film, all these crazy characters and events?
I was inspired by all the men who like fishing and have families and children, and have to face everyday problems. In my case, sometimes I say something to my wife and she does not believe me, but she does so when I lie (laughs). I wanted to show all these everyday problems in the film but also to present them in a way that seems unreal and ridiculous at the same time. I wanted the film to be both funny and horrific.
The film reminded me much of Hollywood horror/B-movies. Are American movies among your influences?
Indeed, I am crazy for Guy Richie and Tarantino films, so I guess they influenced my film.
The combination of humor and violence is one of the central elements of the movie. Can you tell us a bit more about this approach?
I wanted to shoot something new, something fresh, that will not only appeal to our market, but internationally. So, we were discussing with my crew to shoot this kind of ridiculous horror movie in order to come up with a title that people will remember, that is why I implemented this approach.
There is a scene where the protagonist talks about neurosis, psychosis and sex. Can you give us some more details about this concept?
(laughter) I almost forgot about this scene. It is a really deep topic and difficult to discuss but the main character faces a lot of problems in his daily life, with his constantly enervated pregnant wife and so he read a book about psychology in order to better understand her, his buddies but also himself. So, what he learnt from the book, he just related it to everything, and this is the reason behind his speech in that scene.
In another scene, someone from the bank calls the protagonist in order to remind him of his debt, with the female clerk eventually asking him if he's not man enough to pay back what he owes. Can you tell us a bit about this concept?
These are problems most of our people face and so did I, and that is why I wanted to add it to the film, to add it to the psychological problems the protagonist faces.
Can you give us some details about the locations the film was shot?
It was a rather remote area, which I found by chance. I met a friend whom I have not seen for years and he invited me to a place far from the city, in the countryside, which attracts many fishermen. So, when I was writing the script, I remembered the place and I felt it was appropriate for this movie, as it also fit the nature of the characters.
How was the casting like?
Since I have been working for quite a long time in the movie industry of Kazakhstan, I knew all the actors, and we decided on them while we were writing the script. However, this genre was unknown in our industryt, and so for them, it was a bit unusual to act in such a film. Therefore, we were actually rehearsing the scenes while we were writing the script in order to make it easier for them during the shooting.
How about the man with one-eye? He is a rather impressive presence in the film, with all those muscles and the martial arts moves.
He is a respected actor and he is actually about 60 years old. At one point, I asked him to remove his shirt to see how he would look in the film half naked, and I was really surprised by the way he looked. For the action scenes, he was doubled by stuntmen.
Can you give us some more details about the music in the film?
We also selected the music as we were writing the script, but then we decided to also add some old, well-known Kazakh music and we mixed all the genres. I really enjoy old music and I think it truly adds something to the film.
What is your opinion about the Kazakhstan movie industry at the moment?
Expectedly, the pandemic affected film shooting and the film market in general. Regarding our case, this film stayed in cinemas for just one week, and we managed to get our money back, but after that, we could not show it to people here, so we decided to show it to international markets. We were four friends who actually shot the film, without any sponsors, so the whole thing was rather difficult, also because the style of the movie was different and we did not know if the audience would be interested in it.
Are you working on any new projects?
Although it is a bit difficult to film at the moment, I do have some projects, one of which was just finished, titled “Witches” if you translate the title to English. It is a short web series about women's rights and violence against women. We showed in some web festivals and we got awards for it and it will be shown in Spain also. The other two projects are a horror movie and an animation
