Fantastic Fest: Zoology

Russian black comedy Zoology is the fable of a woman who grows a tail: But which came first, the actress or the appendage? Director Ivan Tverdovsky explained via email that his modern parable was always to be told by his star Natalya Pavlenkova. "She is an actress who can make a director imagine a character – a rare gift."

In Zoology (which receives its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest), Pavlenkova plays Natasha, an administrator at a zoo in a coastal Russian town. Constantly tending to her invalid mother, bullied by her colleagues, her only respite is in her friendships with the facility's animals. However, she finds she has more in common with them than a sense of isolation and confinement: She's started growing a tail. For a meek bureaucrat who spends her life striving to be inconspicuous, becoming the center of medical attention and histrionic small-town gossip could be a blessing or a curse.

While her name may not be familiar to Western audiences, Pavlenkova is no ingenue. Aside from her cinematic debut in 1976's Ne Plach, Devchonka, her four-decade acting career has centered on the stage ("It's not random," Tverdovsky wrote, "that she was noticed by well-known international theatre directors – such as Vladimir Mirzoev, Andrei Moguchi, Theodoros Terzopoulos, Robert Wilson"). She returned to the film set in 2013 with a small part in Winter Journey.

However, it was her performance in 2014 directorial debut Corrections Class that led him to write the part of the downtrodden Natasha for her. Tverdovsky wrote that he has "a special language with Natalia and we definitely crafted this character together. ... I usually love the process of casting and considering various alternatives, but in this case it was material written for a particular actress."

Austin Chronicle: Natasha's story represents the contradictions of being an outsider. Her tail, which makes her special, also makes her the target of gossip and hatred. What drew you to this theme?

Ivan Tverdovsky: We Russians love to gossip. People of any social status or age unite when they can discuss someone. So if you would grow a tail, in Russia you would definitely wake up being a celebrity. But such kind of celebrity who wants to jump under a train. There is too much hatred in our society. Too many phobias – something you can see in our film. And now replace the tail with something else, and you will have the same result.

AC: You have a fantastical element in the tail, but you take aim at religious group-think, whether it be the Orthodox priest, the New Age mystics at the end, or the superstitious old women. Did having the tail make it easier to tackle those issues, rather than telling a more conventional story?

IT: For me, it was very important that the protagonist visits the usual locations where all people go with her problem. This is where I would go. I am an Orthodox believer, but I also sometimes paid to see fortune tellers, for example. Once I bought a pass to a personal growth training, and it actually helped me a lot. I found good friends.

AC: When did you pick the zoo as the main location, and what was the experience of filming there with the animals?

IT: When we were shooting, there were issues with electricity in the area. It was very painful emotionally to see animals suffer because of the conditions they were in at that local zoo. Knowing that we could not change much.

AC: When it comes to Russian cinema, American audiences know the bigger name directors like Timur Bekmambetov and Andrey Zvyagintsev, but not many Russian films get released here. How would you describe the state of the film industry in Russia at the moment, and what are the challenges of making a smaller, unconventional movie like Zoologiya?

IT: We have a big industry, with great traditions and history. Now it is not in its best shape. Because there is a lack of professional directors, probably because of a gap in their professional training after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are a few thousands of people who call themselves directors. They took some classes and they are sure of themselves, but I am not sure they have something to say. They take on projects and end up losing the budgets and their credibility. Sadly, there are many such people, and they don't help our industry.

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Zoology
U.S. Premiere
Thursday, Sept. 22, 5:45pm
Monday, Sept. 26, 8:15pm

Fantastic Fest 2016 runs Sept. 22-29 at the Alamo South Lamar. Tickets and info at www.fantasticfest.com, and follow our ongoing coverage at austinchronicle.com/fantastic-fest.