Oksana Mysina
Director
Oksana Mysina is one of Russia's most accomplished actors. Splitting her time between work on stage and on screen, she has performed on Off-Broadway, Avignon, Brazil and 20 other countries, and has appeared in over 40 films with many of Russia's top directors. She is the leader of her own rock band, Oxy Rocks, whose music usually finds its way into her films. She has won numerous cinema awards, including the Golden Ram Debut Award for her performance in Vadim Abdrashitov's Play for a Passenger. Her performance of Empress Maria in Vitaly Melnikov's Poor, Poor Pavel was nominated for a Nika, the so-called Russian Oscar. Mysina debuted as a film director in 2020 with Obizhennye. Belarus(sia) [Insulted. Belarus(sia)], a full-length political film based on the play by Andrei Kureichik. It premiered in Russia on TV Rain on November 15, 2020. Red, Blue and Asya was actually the first film Oksana shot, although it is being released as if it were her third film. Her second released film is titled Ivan Petrovich. She currently lives in Greece, where she is in the post-production stage with a documentary, On the Road to Antigone, and a feature film, Woman and Angel, with Greek casts. She is filming another feature based on a script by Viktor Shenderovich with Russian actors. Mysina edits her own films, and is her own post-production team.
Oksana Mysina on Red, Blue and Asya
Which Foot Forward?
I consider Red, Blue and Asya my first film, although under my wing I have a full-length film Insulted. Belarus(sia), another short, Ivan Petrovich (now beginning its festival life), and in post-production, two big films I have made with Greek friends and colleagues. All these films are different, in genre and in subject matter. But Red, Blue and Asya is special for me. I worked on it for several years, and it was the place from which I began my cinematic search not for plot, but for something we might call the truthful sincerity of the moment. The film embraces a combination of fiction and documentary. It decidedly is not for those who know for a fact that the right foot goes first, and the left follows it. My actors achieved an incredible degree of naturalness; you cannot find the seam between their own personalities and their on-screen personae. This is more valuable than gold. The film features the splendid Marina Kangelary, Alexei Zuev and their fantastic daughter Asya Zueva. I wish to say once again: Do not expect the plot, like some dung beetle, to drag you into its hole and strangle you. Each viewer, I hope, will see their own history, and will hear their own attitude to the beauty and incomprehensibility of the world. This is our experiment. The music consists of tracks by three different composers, each unique in their own way, Sergei Kuchmenko, Sergei Shchetinin and Dmitry Yershov. Running time is 26 minutes.