****MAJOR NEWS*****

As reported in Screen Daily today - the rumours are true!  Patrick Cassavetti (Producer of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and Brazil) has come on board as our Executive Producer!   

See UPDATES for the full text from todays article in Screen Daily and check out the brand new PERK where you get feedback on your past work or upcoming project from Patrick Cassavetti himself!

*****MAJOR NEWS*****

ILYA LAGUTENKO TO DO LENIN?! SOUNDTRACK!

The legendary Ilya Lagutenko from cult band Mumiy Troll will do the score and music selection for LENIN?! it was confirmed today.  From the beginning we knew the film would need a completely original and diverse selection of music and where else to find that than with Ilya Lagutenko!  The LENIN?! team is ecstatic that such a maverick as Lagutenko (who also did the soundtrack for Bekmambetov's DAY WATCH) has taken an interest in the project.  Says Lagutenko: 

"When I first heard about the idea I thought 'Oh it's very Rock n Roll.   Also personally I feel like I really understand the concept.  I have travelled to Kyrgyzstan several times and was always amazed at how old Soviet values interact with traditional and new global influenced.  However, the story is destined to be universal."

With Lagutenko's involvement also come three new awesome perks!  GROOVY LENIN where you can be the first to download the soundtrack, LENIN NEEDS YOU! where you can submit your demo to be included in the soundtrack and BACKSTAGE LENIN WITH LAGUTENKO where you can come backstage to meet Ilya one on one!  

You think its hard making independent films in the US and Europe?  Try making one in Central Asia!

Kyrgyzstan is a modern and vibrant country.  The streets are clean and safe, the music scene is inventive and thriving and you can get a cappuccino on every second street corner in the capital city of Bishkek.  The country is open and ready to be rediscovered by the world - in fact, most foreign nationals can get a 30 day visa right at the border.  It is a nation moving forward at a great pace - and yet in order to get a film made there - you must either look to the past or tell a sad story.  

The population of Kyrgyzstan is 5 million with a yearly filmmaking budget of US$1million.  For that they need to make approximately two features, eight short films and support the local industry.  In contrast - Finland (also with a population of 5 million) has a yearly film budget of US$30million.  To make a long story short – there’s almost no money for film in Kyrgyzstan. 

Dark comedies such as LENIN?! are pushed down the list in favour of films about peasants, nomads and tragic historical figures - that do nothing but fuel the stereotype of Kyrgyzstan as third world.  The filmmakers WANT to make modern films, comedies, actions and genre films, but they just can't get funded to do it.  

So dedicated are the crews in Kyrgyzstan that they will band together and work on each other films for free.  But we don’t want to ask them do this.  Paid film jobs there can be so few and far between that they will even work as taxi drivers to feed their families.  We want to make sure they get paid for their work on our film.  The producers will be the last to take any money from this production.  We are doing it because we love the story and believe so much in it's potential to enrich, enthral and most importantly entertain audiences around the world.  

There has never been a film like LENIN?! made in Kyrgyzstan.   With your support and your backing, this film has the power to change the filmmaking culture (and potentially future) of an entire country. 

Please check out the perks we have come up with for the campaign.  For the adventurous of you we invite you to come to Kyrgyzstan and experience the country for yourself by both visiting the set and the amazing landscapes.  For those who would rather appreciate Kyrgyzstan from afar, we have some great interactive perks, uniquely designed T-shirts and buttons, plus the chance to be our guest of honour at the films world premiere during its first international film festival.   

There are more perks to come so keep an eye out for announcements on our updates!  

On top of our perks for contributions we are trying something that's never been done before - the chance to fund a crewmember directly.  You can give to the gaffer, the production manager, the camera assistant or whoever you wish and know that the money will go directly to cover that persons salary.  In return, your name will be listed in the credits next to that crewmembers name as one of their supporters, along with receiving a signed picture and letter of thanks from that crew member.  

TO DONATE DIRECTLY TO A CREW MEMBER CLICK ON THE 'CONTRIBUTE NOW' BUTTON AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE.  YOU CAN EITHER SELECT A PERK OR CLICK 'I JUST WANT TO DONATE'.  

You will then receive an email from the producers to confirm either which crew member you want to support or if you would like to make a general contribution.  This idea is so new we're the first ones to do it and this is the only way to do it right now!  

You can see the progression of the crew members salaries next to their bios.  The film will be shot in 4 weeks and whilst the wages may seem low by western standards, we are paying ABOVE the regular wage.  

The crew is a truly international group of passionate filmmakers banding together to make this film a reality.  From Kyrgyzstan to Australia, Germany and Romania we are all behind the project and ready to make it happen. 

Marat began as a camera assistant before attending the Kyrgyz State Institute of Fine Arts, specialising in cinema and screenwriting.  During his studies he came to admire the work of Bunuel, Bresson, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky and Fellini and became interested in finding new forms of cinematic language.  He graduated with short film THE TOILET, shot on 16mm, in a time when most short films in the region were limited to video.  His debut ONE DAY IN THE SUMMER (1998) won the award for Best Documentary Director at the Almaty Film Festival whilst his first attempt to find his own cinematic language, the fiction short film MOUSE (2003) – shot entirely from the point of view of a door mouse - was awarded the special jury prize at the Baku Film Festival and went on to compete in many international festivals.  His follow up, the short film BORDER (2006) won the Grand Prix at Almaty as well as many other international prizes.  In 2009, Marat moved back into the world of documentary films as the creative producer of STATE & COUNTRY and END OF THE WORLD before exploring social drama in OLD MAN (2011).  His work is both poignant and absurdist, whilst always maintaining a strong and engaging narrative at its heart. 

FILMOGRAPHY
OLD MAN, 2011,
19mins (Writer/Director)
THE END OF THE WORLD, 2011,
36mins (Writer/Director/Creative Director)
STATE & COUNTRY,
2008-2010, 56mins, (Writer/Segment Director/Creative Producer)
WINNER Grand Prix - Bir Duino Film Festival,
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
WINNER Best Non-Fiction - Shaken Stars Almaty Film Festival
Festival, Kazakhstan
ADAP AHLAK, 2007,
72mins, (Writer/Director)
BORDER, 2006,
20mins, (Writer/Director)
WINNER Special Jury Prize - Tashkent International Film Festival
Film Festival, Uzbekistan
WINNER Grand Prix - Shaken Stars Almaty Film Festival
Festival, Kazakhstan
WINNER Special prize ‘For the Development of Human
Subjects of International Relations’
- Didor New Cinema XXI Century Festival of CIS &
Baltic Countries, Smolensk, Russia
WINNER Special Jury Prize - International Film Festival
Festival, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
WINNER Best Fiction Film - Together International Film Festival
Film Festival, Yalta, Ukraine
LEGAL ADVICE, 2005,
Television Series, KTR Television (Writer)
CHYCHKAN (Mouse), 2003,
22mins, (Writer/Director)
WINNER Special Jury Prize - Tashkent International Film Festival
Film Festival, Uzbekistan
WINNER Special Award for Creative Research - Baku International Film Festival
International Film Festival, Azerbaijan
ONE DAY IN SUMMER, 1998,
20mins, (Director)
WINNER Best Director (Documentary) - Almaty International Film Festival, 
International Film Festival, Kazakhstan 

In the small town of Kara-Balta in northern Kyrgyzstan, Skull, Troll and Chicka are the outcasts.  Punk kids who are routinely getting into trouble for petty nuisances, the mere sight of them in the market place elicits the shaking of heads from the conservative community.  But that doesn’t bother them.  They spend most of their time scavenging scrap metal from the surrounding fields and the old industrial structures long since abandoned by the Soviets, who left the country over two decades ago. 

Skull is being raised by his paternal grandmother.   His mother left the family and his father went to Moscow to earn money as a labourer.  Chicka’s father died when he was only young and his mother is set to marry Kara-Balta’s new chief of police - which Chicka doesn't like at all.  In contrast Troll is from a large family, with both parents, brothers and a sister who are all better than him in every way.  But he is not concerned about being the black sheep of the family.  For the past few months his attention has been on Alytnai, his beautiful next-door neighbour, and he can routinely be found crouching behind the tree outside her window listening to her practice the cello when not out scavenging with his friends.

The boys never earn much from their spoils of copper and tin.  A few hundred Som (the currency of Kyrgyzstan) at most, which only covers their cigarettes and booze for the week.  But the boys want more.  There is a concert coming up that they just HAVE to go to and they are in need of quick cash.  

They hear that the big money is to be made in bronze, a non-ferrous metal they know to be in all of the statues in their town.  They could take the one of the man on the horse or one of the heads in the war memorial, but they want to aim higher than that.  They want the biggest statue in town.  They want the one of the funny bald man in the suit with his arm outstretched that presides over the town square.  They reason that if they don’t know who he is, perhaps some other old politician will just replace it… 

How wrong they are.  The statue is of none other than Vladimir Ilych Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union.  The town is in the middle of municipal elections and the boys have unwittingly given the candidates the ultimate buzz issue.  Both parties use the theft to highlight their own political agenda, either spinning it to proclaim it as a sign of social change or claiming that they will be the ones to bring the culprits to justice.  As the situation spirals out of control the boys find themselves embroiled in politics, making bribes at the city morgue and even visiting a library, as they try to learn (very quickly) just who Lenin is…and now, how do they get rid of him? 

The idea for the story came to Marat one night watching television.  There was a news piece about a statue of a poet that had been stolen in the capital city of Bishkek and Marat's first thought was, 'They must really like poetry...' Watching the news he then understood that the poet was irrelevant to theft - it was the statue that was stolen and he began considering the difference between the idols that the statues represent vs the metal that they’re actually made of.  The poet was just scrap-metal, but then Marat began to consider what the response would be if a more politically charged statue was stolen for money but people misunderstood it as a social statement.  What would happen if they stole Lenin?  

With limited money from his own pocket Marat shot a short film of the story in 2003.  He bought an old Lenin prop made from wood and painstakingly painted it to resemble a real metal statue.  So small was the film's budget that the 2 metre, 130kg 'Lenin' was transported from location to location on the public bus and they had to spend part of the budget buying ‘him’ a ticket. 

Marat was not satisfied with the short film on the whole.  He wanted to go deeper into the story and knew he needed more screen time to explore the characters, the themes and convey the general absurdity of the adventure.  

The project was awarded development funding in 2012 from the Asian Cinema Fund to develop the story into a feature length film.  This kicked off an amazing 18 month run where the project was selected for 5 pitching sessions and co-productions markets across South Korea, Russia and Germany and was widely considered to be one of the hottest projects on the circuit.  

Now - we are ready to go.  We have all of the elements in place - the locations, an amazingly talented, dedicated and international crew, a brilliant script and Marat Alykulov at the helm.  All we need is your support to make it a reality.  

The majority of the films budget (42%) goes directly towards paying the crew.  Equipment rental will also take a large chunk of the budget, but it is significantly reduced due to deals already made with local suppliers in Bishkek.  The accommodation budget may appear inflated, but it is due to our location of Kara-Balta being an hour out of Bishkek.  We have decided that it is more cost effective to have the crew ready, available and rested by accommodating them in the town for the 2 weeks of exterior location shooting than to have people travelling to-and-from Bishkek everyday – in which we would be paying for their petrol costs anyway.  This means that what would have been transport costs can be absorbed into the accommodation budget.  Casting is an essential part of the process on this film as it will live or die by the performances of the three leads, Skull, Troll and Chicka.  We are therefore investing a portion of the finances to a thorough casting and rehearsal process for the three boys with Marat, to develop the characters completely and get the performances on the right level well before the camera turns over. 

The budget and perks are in £'s as Curb Denizen (the production company) is based in the UK.   All perk costs were first done in US$ and then re-calculated into £'s so that the final costs for contributors would be within reason worldwide. 

CURB DENIZEN PRODUCER – Joanna Bence (Australia)

Joanna Bence is an Australian producer with over fifteen years experience in the Australian film industry who has spent the past five years working in the UK, Russia and Central Asia producing feature films, short documentaries, promotional videos and short films. Originally from Melbourne, she began her career as a production assistant on productions such as THE WEDDING PARTY, LOWDOWN (pilot) and NEIGHBOURS before pursing her Masters degree in Filmmaking at The London Film School. She has participated in or had her projects selected for over 30 international co-production markets and pitching sessions in the past three years including The Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival, Connecting Cottbus East/West Co-Production Market and the Berlinale Co-Production Market in Germany, amongst many others. In 2010 she founded Curb Denizen in the UK with Russian/American producer Fyodor Druzin. Their first feature, the Russian/UK co-production SAINT PETERSBURG (2013) was theatrically released on over 200 screens across Russia on 3 April 2014 under its Russian title, PITER. SUMMER. LOVE. 

Joanna has been working on LENIN?! for over three years but will not take any payment on the film until the whole crew has been paid. 

CURB DENIZEN PRODUCER – Fyodor Druzin (Russia/USA)

Fyodor Druzin began his career as a photographer in Boston, USA before returning to his native Russia.  He has produced shorts, features and documentaries in London, Russia and Kyrgyzstan, including the short THE SONG OF THE RAIN (2011), which premiered in Locarno and competed at numerous international film festivals including Dresden and Clemont Ferrand.  In 2010 he co-founded Curb Denizen Productions and produced the independent feature SAINT PETERSBURG (2013) (d. Andrey Khvostov).  Fyodor currently oversees projects in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Australia and the UK whilst also acting as Creative Director for the Deboshir Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Fyodor has been working on LENIN?! for over three years but will not take any payment on the film until the whole crew has been paid. 

KOVCHEG PRODUCER – Oleg Vyboichenko (Kyrgyzstan) 

Based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oleg Vyboichenko has over twenty years experience in the film and television industry from short films and corporate video production to advertising and feature films.  He began as editor-in-chief for Independent Bishkek Television before working as an editor, production manager and line producer for ‘KOORT’ TV.  In 2004 he became the regional producer of the ‘Open Asia’ Program on the Internew Network before moving to the Kyrgyz National Film Studio in 2005.  Since 2008 he has headed Kovcheg (Ark) Films that develops short films, documentaries and feature projects that give a positive perspective on Central Asia.

Oleg has been working on LENIN?! for over five years but will not take any payment on the film until the whole crew has been paid. 

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – Stephan Bookas (Germany)

Stephan is a German-born, London based filmmaker and cinematographer.  He has travelled the world, shooting films in India, Siberia, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Germany and the UK. He likes to challenge the way traditional DOPs work and always aims get a lot out of very little, making micro-budget shoots look like grand spectacles.  For him the challenge and the restrictions are the enjoyment of the process.  He is currently working on several documentaries and fictional projects and has at one point gone through a 52 hour lighting and shooting marathon to finish 8 scenes in 6 different locations.  He has worked as a technician on big budget productions like the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy and Malificent and was cinematographer on the German feature film Trans Bavaria (2012).  

He is donating his time to work on the film- but we still have to pay to get him there!  

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3654877/

DISCLAIMER:  All crew members who are not taking a fee for their work on the film will take some small fee if the film exceeds it's target.   Everyone's got to eat!  

ART DEPARTMENT

We are still seeking out a Production Designer, Make-Up artist and Costume Designer to come on board the project to cover the art department and 'look' of the film.  We would love to hear from people internationally who are willing to donate their time and expertise to create a truly unique and professional look for the film.  Russian language skills a bonus but not a necessity.  

POST-PRODUCTION

We would love to hear from post-production houses anywhere in world that could donate facilities and/or technicians.  We're already an international production and would love to expand the network even further!  

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

Any marketing and promotion would be a massive asset to the production.  If you or your company can help the project in any way we would love to hear from you. 

SPREAD THE WORD! 

Just help us spread the word.  Like and Share on Facebook, Tweet, post on your blog or email the campaign to friends and family.  Help us get the campaign out into the world! 

T-shirts come in black or white in standard sizes for women and men.   These designs have been created exclusively for the campaign and will be limited to those contributors who take up the perks.  Own a little bit of 'I helped bury LENIN?! history!'

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