Kommersant: "Talent-Money-Talent"
Vladimir Putin proposes drastic changes to the economic model of Russian cinema.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with filmmakers and, after just a three-hour conversation with them, decided to revolutionise Russia's film industry by drastically changing the system of government funding. Our special correspondent, Andrei Kolesnikov, was there to see the prime minister unveil his groundbreaking approach to the film industry and to reflect on the implications it will have for the minister of culture.
Vladimir Putin's visit to VGIK (the National Film Institute) was scheduled to coincide with the institute's 90th anniversary. First the prime minister took a quick look around the institute. One of the sound stages looked like it was set up to shoot a café scene. Seated at a table was Vadim Yusov, head of the cinematography department, who was, director of photography on Andrei Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublyov". This was as incredible as the rickety props. But it was the only thing that was true.
Students had their cameras trained on the door through which the prime minister was about to enter. They were not simply going to shoot a scene in a café, but a scene from the life of Vladimir Putin in a café. But it wasn't clear exactly what these young people were up to. One of the students took out measuring tape and measured the distance from the entrance to the camera. It must have been about two metres. The student shook his head. It seems the distance was not right at all.
"What are we going to shoot: me or something more interesting?" Putin asked when at last he appeared in the room.
The same student, without acknowledging the prime minister's remark, measured the light around Putin's head (he had done the same thing ten minutes before, but he repeated it now as if the prime minister's head might be emitting light). The bodyguards were just barely able to keep their professional impulses in check. The camera started whirring.
The prime minister asked whether this was a large sound stage. He waited for a response from the students, but they were too busy. "No, it's not a big one," the institute's rector, Vladimir Malyshev, said. "200 square metres. But many film schools in the world don't have practice studios at all. They can't afford it."
I looked at Malyshev with suspicion. He was apparently so overwhelmed by the prime minister's visit that he could not control himself. If other film schools in the world did not have such studios, it could only mean one thing: they have better studios.
"Could I give you something?" Vadim Yusov asked the prime minister.
"No, no," Vladimir Malyshev exclaimed with a frightened look on his face.
He was following the instructions that he received before the prime minister's arrival. As the instructions were not developed by VGIK, Vadim Yusov was unaware of them, and so he was already walking toward the prime minister with a black box. He opened it and produced a statuette of a cameraman with a tripod over his shoulder, which he gave it to the prime minister.
"Very nice, they don't take anything away from you here," Putin said cheerfully. Apparently the memory of his visit to a defense plant in Tula a month ago was still fresh. During his tour of that plant, in an unguarded moment, Putin gave his wristwatch to a worker at the plant.
The floor of the next sound stage was covered in starch from huge bags, which was intended to mimic the sound of fresh snow crunching under feet. Putin walked over the fresh starch and said he would come to collect his fee. He clearly knows exactly how much his every step is worth.
The prime minister then took a look at a new recording studio. This time the rector did not claim that no other studio in the world had such equipment. He merely said that Mosfilm did not have such a studio. Fortunately, Mosfilm director-general, Karen Shakhnazarov, was out of earshot. Shakhnazarov was among the members of the council for the development of the national film industry awaiting the prime minister, and he had a chance to make his voice heard.
Other council members include the heads of Channel 1 and VGTRK, Konstantin Ernst and Oleg Dobrodeyev, Minister of Telecommunications and the Media Igor Shchegolev, Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeyev, film director Nikita Mikhalkov ... in short, a motley bunch.
Putin said he was pleased with what he had seen at VGIK. He shared with Shakhnazarov what he had just heard from the VGIK rector, namely that Mosfilm did not have all the equipment that VGIK has.
"We just hid it from you," Shakhnazarov explained.
According to the prime minister, the share of Russian films shown in Russian cinemas has grown from 4% in the early 2000s to 25% now (which means that the remaining 75% were Western films) and during the past year that share increased by an additional 15 percentage points in spite of the crisis.
"The Great Depression in the US," Putin noted, "was a powerful impetus for the development of the American film industry."
It seems that our economic crisis was designed specifically to give a boost to the Russian film industry (except that it didn't).
"The problem with the domestic film industry is not the amount of cash or tax breaks... the problems is the way these resources are managed, the ability to create competitive products, to win domestic and world audiences," the prime minister said. Apparently this came as news to some judging by their animated reactions. This did not prevent Nikita Mikhalkov from pressing for tax breaks and more cash after the meeting. He said a billion dollars was needed, that it could come from off-budget sources, and then he will make sure that in ten years time the film industry will not need any more government money.
This could only mean that in ten years either the film industry or the state will be gone. Any other outcome - for example, that the film industry might become self-sufficient - is unlikely.
As it turns out, Nikita Mikhalkov made that point both before and after the meeting.
"I see Nikita Mikhalkov staring at me," Vladimir Putin said suddenly. "The day before yesterday he really got under my skin telling me how much cash he needed to make a breakthrough in quality."
Apparently, Nikita Mikhalkov will continue to push that line because chances are slim that he will get his billion from the government.
"There is never enough money," the prime minister said. "But good ideas and talented workers are even scarcer. It is not money that generates talent, but talent that generates money."
It has to be said that while it's more or less clear how money generates talent, how talent can generate money remains a mystery.
"Let us look at what projects have benefited the country and society," the prime minister said. At that point, the journalists were asked to leave the room.
One of the participants told me on condition of anonymity how, in his view, government money is distributed among the filmmakers:
"A film director comes to the Ministry of Culture, asks for money for his film and ministry bureaucrats decide whether or not to give it. The Ministry of Culture essentially plays the role of film producer. More than half of the films financed with government funds never make it to the screen and most of the rest are made in one or two copies in order to report back that the film has been released. The directors make no bones about the fact that kickbacks in the business (and for some bureaucrats it has long been just that) may be as high as 50-70%, with the so-called filmmakers pocketing another quarter of the proceeds.
During the meeting, Nikita Mikhalkov, speaking on behalf of the Filmmakers Union, proposed a new idea. Government money should be accumulated at the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support of the National Film Industry, an institution that exists but is strapped for cash. The fund would then distribute the money among the country's leading production companies.
"People in these companies are not told what films to make," another participant in the meeting and co-author of the proposal said. "We sign a contract that states that, of course, the film must be in line with the interests of the nation. It may tell about the plight of drug addicts. It may tell the story of a man who hit rock bottom during the crisis only to scrape his way back to the top... The state needs to know what it pays for, and those who take the money must take its interests into consideration."
My source told me that this proposal ensures that the producers release the film to the cinemas and give the state its share of profits from ticket receipts. Money won't go into the state budget but into the Film Fund, which will finance new projects. The head of the new fund will be appointed by the Russian government. It may be the deputy prime minister, Alexander Zhukov. (To anticipate questions, according to Kommersant's information, Nikita Mikhalkov will not be the head of the fund).
"How will money be divided up between production companies?" one of the directors asked.
The prime minister took on the question. In his opinion, in the first year money should be shared equally among all, but beginning the following year it will depend on how many people have seen the film and whether it has won awards at film festivals. (In other words, the films' efficiency ratio will be taken into consideration).
According to Kommersant's information, representatives of the Ministry of Culture (which is to say the culture minister, Alexander Avdeyev, seated at the table and his deputy, Alexander Golutva, on the bench of invitees seated behind the participants in the meeting) first heard about the proposal during Nikita Mikhalkov's announcement.
The minister of culture said he was against the proposal and that the ministry was developing its own system of distributing money, though he did not elaborate. Regardless, it is clear that the job of distributing cash will go to the ministry. The minister has no objections to that.
The prime minister said that the rules the Ministry of Culture planned to introduce would actually preserve the old system of distributing money. These rules would not work for the simple reason that the country has no electronic system for booking tickets, and he asked what progress has been made toward establishing one (the distributor is supposed to give 50% of the proceeds to the producers, but without a federal electronic booking system it is impossible to keep track of how many people have actually seen the film, as it is distributors who provide the data). The Ministry of Culture was instructed to develop such a system at a similar meeting a year ago, which happened to fall on the prime minister's birthday.
Once again, the prime minister failed to get a satisfactory answer (under the ministry's plan, the system would be financed out of the state budget, but the government had put a stopper on the project). The prime minister asked how much it would cost to set up the system. The culture minister was silent. Some members of the meeting volunteered estimates:
"6 million roubles."
"If everyone present in this room splits the cost, that would be just about enough," Putin said.
Alexander Avdeyev disagreed. He believes the required sum is far greater. However, deputy minister of finance, Tatyana Nesterenko, confirmed the figure:
"6.8 million roubles."
The prime minister invited comments from the participants. Only the culture minister expressed opposition. He said: "I have one simple question: who will support Mosfilm?"
Karen Shakhnazarov, who found his organisation's problems at the center of the discussion for a second time that day, told the minister that Mosfilm had not received a single kopeck of government money in the last ten years.
The director-general of Channel 1, Konstantin Ernst, said that in recent years very few major production companies had received anything from the state (one can understand the bureaucrats: majors are only interested in actual money).
"I understand now," the prime minister said with some relief.
"Middlemen are at work here too (the issue of middlemen has obviously been bothering him lately - A.K.)
Putin told the culture minister that the producers receiving government funds were working with his ministry's officials for remuneration.
This was the first chance (or desire) Vladimir Putin has had, as president or prime minister, to say something so blunt to a government minister.
The prime minister proceeded to read out a draft protocol setting forth the new proposals, after which he added: "If the protocol is not carried out within two weeks it is dead. We understand that the Ministry has everything it needs to kill it (it is enough to start considering it seriously and then put it up for a national discussion - A.K.). But if you kill it, we will know who has done it and why."
Regardless of how the situation develops, one thing is clear: someone will be killed as a result.
