Khamatova Stars In Molochnikov's 'The Extremists' Feature
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- Chulpan Khamatova has been cast in Alexander Molochnikov's 'The Extremists,' a feature-length expansion of his Oscar-shortlisted short 'Extremist,' which centered on a Russian artist jailed for swapping supermarket food labels with pacifist messages and facing a 10-year sentence
- The Extremists expands the original short into a three-part narrative with two newly shot perspectives alongside Krichman's cinematography from the original, drawing from hundreds of real stories from contemporary Russia but remaining fictional
- Filming is underway in Latvia on the AR Content and Forma Pro Films production, with Rodnyansky producing alongside Julia Zaitseva, Svetlana Punte, Molochnikov, Andrey Burkovskiy, and Gennadiy Ravvin of Yes or Yes Studio
- Manuel Alberto Claro (Melancholia) and Benoît Delhomme (The Theory of Everything) join Mikhail Krichman (DOP on the original short) as the film's three cinematographers, each lensing one of the feature's three storylines
- Khamatova had to leave Russia after publicly criticizing Putin's invasion of Ukraine, a decision Rodnyansky — sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years for his own anti-war statements — said cost her career in her home country
- AR Content's upcoming slate includes 'Place to Be' with Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi, and Pamela Anderson, Amos Gitai's Venice-premiering doc 'The Road to Jericho,' and TNT's September 13 series 'High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam' starring Joel Kinnaman
Why it matters: The casting gives the project direct credibility as anti-Putin protest art: Khamatova and Rodnyansky are two of Russia's most internationally prominent cultural figures who lost their careers and, in Rodnyansky's case, faced an 8.5-year prison sentence for opposing the war. Latvia-based production also keeps the film safely outside Russian jurisdiction while it dramatizes real political-prisoner stories from contemporary Russia.
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