A lost whaling town close to the Bering Strait. The reaching of Internet and its impact on Leshka, the teen protagonist. In his feature film debut, The Whaler Boy, the russian director Philipp Yuryev draws a reflection about the quest of love, the transition to adulthood, and the sentimental learning issues.
We’ve seen, read and heard many fiction stories about the Mexican border, but not about the Russians who cross the Bering Strait. Why was it important for you to show this different migrant reality?
Porque para los rusos es un hecho, aunque no todo el mundo en mi país sepa que existe una frontera entre EE.UU. y Rusia. No todos mis compatriotas están al tanto de que puedes cruzar la frontera con un barco en cuatro o cinco horas. Entre ambas civilizaciones hay diferencias extremas. Los chavales de Siberia están muy cerca de América, no sólo a través de las películas y de internet, sino geográficamente.
¿Resulta tan complicado cruzar como desde el sur?
No es tan fácil. 15 años atrás hubo casos, se dieron unos pocos episodios de personas que consiguieron cruzar y quedarse en EE.UU., incluso hubo gente de Latinoamérica que viajó hasta aquí para cruzar, porque era más fácil que hacerlo desde México, pero ahora el área está más protegida. Patrullan, así que es más difícil.
Sin embargo, y a diferencia de la imagen ruda de los policías de frontera, en tu película muestras a un oficial de patrulla amable. ¿Esta visión está basada en hechos reales?
Si hubiéramos planteado la trama de una manera realista, el oficial, al ver a Leshka con un arma, lo hubiera matado, porque son las instrucciones que recibe, pero mi personaje entiende que es un chaval, que viene de una región remota y no entiende muy bien lo que hace. Así que le da una oportunidad de seguir vivo. Comprende que es un adolescente, y que a esa edad se cometen locuras. Hace unos 16 años atrás, hubo una historia de un crío, la diferencia es que fue arrestado por oficiales rusos de la guardia de la frontera. Tras detenerlo hubo una entrevista donde dijo que su intención era ver los rascacielos. Se le preguntó si entendía que en Alaska no los hay y si lo que buscaba, en último término, era la oportunidad de llegar a Nueva York o a California, pero no conocía la diferencia entre unos estados y otros.
The idea for this film came during a trip to the Far North of Russia. How are you linked if so with this region?
Efectivamente, la primera idea surgió en un viaje a esas comunidades, porque conocí a algunos habitantes locales y como había aparecido internet, me fijé en un grupo de chavales mirando unas webcam.
What have you learned from your filming experience that you didn’t know before?
Los intérpretes de mi película son mucho más únicos e interesantes que los actores y profesionales de la industria del cine, por eso pienso que esta propuesta es interesante, porque te brinda la oportunidad de ver la vida real en este lugar remoto. No son actores cuando están frente a la cámara, sino ellos mismos. No creo que sea el último filme que ruede allí. Quiero ir de vez en cuando.
Is it love the driving force of this film or boredom?
Both, Leshka is a teenager and experiences both his first romantic feelings and the feeling of the proximity of a new world. He is very curious to discover everything that he is waiting for him. He experiences mixed feelings in experiencing his first love.
Were you trying to comment on the youth initiation to sex through the internet?
Of course. It is one of the main aspects of the film. When you are 16 or 17 years old you are obsessed with thoughts about women and all these guys have is a chat through a webcam with which they can dream of these blonde girls they have never seen before. It is normal for young people to be obsessed with sex. It is a call of nature, an initiatory experience that we all go through. He is excited because he is beginning to experience his step into adult life.
The film has a subtle sense of humor. Who were you inspired by for the grandfather character?
In my grandparents. My grandfather was a very interesting person, he was a writer, and my grandmother always complains that she wants to die and that she is going to die this very day. They both inspired me. However, much of the humor resides in the actor who plays the character, Nikolay Tatato, a quiet man who speaks openly about his feelings.
What did you plan to achieve by the contrast between the rugged landscapes and the use of a score which includes Julee Cruise, Roy Orbison and surf music?
It was not my starting idea, but I found it interesting to use that dreamy pop music in contrast to the activity of the great hunters who, with their actions, write this cycle of death. At the same time, the United States is close and the inhabitants of this part of Russia dream of living there, so the music has to be American to inspire that evocation. Julee’s voice is so different… I love this sense of absurdity.
Whales have this legendary allure drawn not only from Moby Dick but from its size and majesty. By contrast, your film shows the demystified day-to-day relation of the local hunters with these beasts.
Of course I have read Moby Dick, it is the best known work of art dedicated to whale hunters, but in local traditions, the relationship with whales is very spiritual. Its existence is a fundamental aspect linked to the survival of the community. They have been doing the same for hundreds of years. For these sequences I wanted to use the documentary format, because it is something unique and I aspired to show it on the big screen. The hunt is real, we had permission to roll in the boat, as visitors. We didn’t organize it, but the opportunity arose in real life. Hunting in these sites is legal, it is approved by a whaling commission, it is called native hunting. The experience caused me very dark feelings. It was very hard. It is impressive because of how cruel and risky it is.
