Imagine a child who has lost his loved one, a teenager who is different from others and rejected by his own family, a creative and talented person that had to face misunderstanding, bullying and shame. All that is shaped in a dancer with a passionate heart and an admirable determination for perfection. We present you an immersion into the Tarik’s world and subconsciousness through the line between life and death.

RUSLAN AKSENOV (director, art director)

The project has started a couple of years before I got involved, with its own path and character. I was invited to the project by my friend, a talented artist, cameraman and director Maksim Klenov, at a stage when it had a life of itself, but needed a fresh touch and push to come yo its fruition. I’ve known Maxim for quite a long time, we worked together on multiple projects, and his invitation to participate in Sankapla was a very easy and organic decision for me.

After an initial glance at the project, I understood that a different form and a different rhythm of the picture was needed, it was a real challenge and a thrill to find a new plasticity. We needed to shoot more of the material in order to reveal more of the portrait of the hero and portray the character at the level of feelings and sensations.

We decided to make a parallel between the worlds of the hero, his childhood and the present moment, emphasizing the idea and feelings through the prism of metaphors and the disclosure of his inner world.

Once this structure was built, the rest of the job came easy. It was meant to happen.

MAKS KLENOV (cinematographer, creative director)

Dance projects have always been my passion. I remember the day when my friend Anya who also is a co-producer of the film called me and said: Look, I have a guy… He’s amazing. We should make a movie about him.

That’s how the film started. It was my first time in NYC. There were no crew, no shooting plan, nothing. New York, big city life, one single camera, and the Hero. I must say, it wasn’t easy, it was a full-on improvisation, a total being in the flow, creating as we go.

After we’ve finished the filming of the project, we then had a real challenging post-production process. This film was collected like a Rubik’s cube. Dozens of editing versions, several times of hopelessness and hands down. I prefer to think that the material was gaining strength for a couple of years:) At some point I realized that I need additional forces to bring this to life and I decided to come to Ruslan. We made some projects together. I saw a really powerful and talented artist in him. As we got together to work on this film, everything had fallen into place. Ruslan brought his unique point of view into the project and helped us to complete this story.

Then we found a production Digital Lab that saw potential in us and our project, and we shook hands. The process began, we finished the missing scenes, found an understudy with whom we staged a choreography dance. It was simply unrealistic and illogical to fly to the states and do additional shooting, that’s why we filmed everything in Moscow, in parallel we did the graphic part. The challenge was to combine and preserve the visual aesthetics of the graphics and the reality of the footage. We tested multiple edits for a long time, selected references, and finally found the golden grail. Everyone was happy and the combination of graphics and video part worked.

ANYA LAYFIELD ( producer and art director)

Meeting Tarik and learning about his story has been a turning point for myself and the understanding of what’s possible for a human being. His story inspired me and once again reminded me about the vast potential of an individual regardless of the circumstances. Having had initiated the documentary and receiving a huge support from professionals who believed in the project once again made me realize that the journey was worth it. I’m forever grateful to everyone involved, and most of all, I’m beyond happy to see the impact of this movie on Tarik’s life and a wider community of artists who follow the path of ultimate devotion to their craft. It is a

DENIS LEVAKOV (producer and postproduction producer)

The main message that we wanted to convey is to emphasize the state of the hero, the world of his inner child who is faced with the loss of a loved one, fear and danger. We love native metaphors and allegories, conveying emotions through objects and macro shooting, creating a sensual and barely tangible visual range.

Thus, we created an interesting form that emphasizes the inner world of the hero and combined it with documentary footage, which in a smooth dance turns into a visual and auditory narrative.

We want to express our gratitude to everyone involved in the project for their support, motivation, criticism and kind words, you have no idea how it helped! Thanks to the Digital Lab Production for believing in our project and rushing to help with all their might. CGI team, you are cool! Thanks for implementing our creepy ideas, thanks to Ruslan and Maksim for trust and support, thanks to talented production designer Vasily Archangelsky for joining the team, for brought his vision and helped to realize the nonsense conceived by us.