FTII student Sandhya Daisy Sundaram’s short documentary Love.Love.Love., which is selected for Sundance Film Festival 2014, was made during Cinetrain, The Russian Winter Project in January this year. Sundaram takes our readers on a journey with Love.Love.Love:
In soviet Russia, in the 1930s, film crews, under the guidance of Aleksandr Medvedkin, used to travel through the Soviet Union in specially equipped wagons, with the idea of giving power of speech to people who didn’t normally have the opportunity to get their voices heard.
Cinetrain is based on this concept, where filmmakers from across the globe set out to make documentaries travelling about in trains! Every other year, a different route and a theme are chosen. In 2013, the topic was Russian Stereotypes set in the Russian Winter. 7 films were made, of which Love. Love. Love.was one. The sub themes were pre-decided when the applications were out, and Love. Love. Love. was based on stereotypes about the Russian women, and we had all the independence of translating the theme as we saw fit.
Our team consisted of the DoP – Alexey Filippov (Russian), Sound designer – Marcin Knyziack (Polish), Producers – Tanya Petrik (Russia) and Guillaume Protsenko (France), and I, the Director and Editor. Over a period of a month, all participants travelled through the vast landscape of Russia in the extreme Russian winter, shooting and editing on the go. Love. Love. Love. was shot in Moscow, Irkutsk, St. Petersburg, Tomsk, Murnmask and the Baikal. The journeys were always set in the train and were also for most parts, the base for all post-production.
Instead of going with a lead character, we decided to speak to everyday heroes from all ages, and build a character of a universal Russian woman with many aspects through their voices and imagery
Though I went with a rough script in mind, which formed through the pre-production stage consisting of research and a lot of Skype meetings, the attempt was to not get tangled in the stereotypes ourselves, so the team set out slowly… and the concept evolved, transformed and became what Love. Love. Love. is now. Set against voices of the Russian women, it looks at the theme of love, sacrifice, family… so ingrained in the Russian women.
To make the film on Russian women, our idea was to get a sense and experience of being one. So instead of going with a lead character, we decided to speak to everyday heroes from all ages, and build a character of a universal Russian woman with many aspects through their voices and imagery.
Language was the biggest obstacle. The team went through the laborious process of translating every interview into English and then piecing the voice over as it is now. Often the interviews were based on instinct. The one hurdle that I thought we would have while making this film was to get the women to open up to us, considering what little time we had with them. But they turned out to be extremely expressive, were welcoming to our intrusions and shared some really intimate details of their lives. I didn’t go expecting this but I was completely taken aback by the strength of Russian women.
Sandhya Daisy Sundaram
The team laboriously worked to achieve what we had thought of. We would spend our time in the cities hunting for possible cast and shooting, and on the trains we would spend hours translating, editing and working on the sound design. The cinematographer being Russian, doubled up as the translator and many a times the interviewer as well! We were extremely inter-dependent through the entire making of the film. Even on our return to our own countries, we spent hours together on Skype tweaking and making the very final decisions for the film.
Love. Love. Love. has been doing well, and has been selected for a few festivals like Baghdad International Film Festival, Hangzhou Asia Film Festival among others, and it is always good to know that your film is reaching to people across the globe. The selection to Sundance was the biggest surprise of them all though. Personally, it has always been a dream, as it’s an epitome for Independent cinema. The opportunity to be a part of Sundance 2014 is overwhelming and our team is looking forward for the screenings and responses to Love. Love. Love. eagerly.
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