Generation P, LLC

presents

a Victor Ginzburg Film

Based on the novel by Victor Pelevin

Vladimir Yepifantsev

Michael Yefremov Andrei Fomin

Sergei Shnurov Alexander Gordon Renata Litvinova

Oleg Taktarov Roman Trakhtenberg

Igor Mirkurbanov Ivan Okhlobystin

Yuri Safarov Yelena Polyakova Vladimir Menshov

Amalia Mordvinova Leonid Parfyonov

Andrei Panin Andrei Vasiliev Igor Grigoriev

A POLITICAL UPDATE

The Russian film industry avoids provocative political and social issues because it's financed by the government and state-owned TV networks. When it was released in Russia in April 2011, GENERATION P became the first and only Russian film that poked sharp satire at the current Russian political system and the virtuality of its leaders. Given the current political turmoil in Russia, provoked by major voter fraud perpetrated by the Putin regime, and presidential elections coming up on March 4, GENERATION P with its scenes of creating a virtual Putin-like President, has become even more relevant. The Russian TV premiere is scheduled for early March on Ch.1 - Russia’s biggest TV network, right at the time of the Russian presidential elections. Will the Kremlin allow it to air? A battle is brewing.

GENERATION P received critical acclaim at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival where if played in the Vanguard Program. Other recent accolades include Special Jury Mention at the Karlovy Vary IFF, the Audience Award at “Sputnik Over Poland”, the biggest festival of Russian cinema outside of Russia. GENERATION P was also selected as the opening night film of the London Russian Film Festival and received the Timeout London Critics’ Choice of the Week

SYNOPSIS Generation P, adapted from Victor Pelevin’s iconic Russian bestseller, follows the strange adventures of Babylen Tatarsky as he evolves from a disillusioned young man in the drab days of post-Communist Moscow to the chief “creative” behind the virtual world of Russian politics…. When Babylen was a Young Pioneer, his generation received a gift from the decaying Soviet state in the form of a bottle of Pepsi, of Russian manufacture. Not just a beverage, it was also a symbol of hope that some day a new, magical life would arrive from the other side of the ocean. The arrival of this life, and the way it transformed these ex-Pioneers, is what our film is about.

In the early Nineties, Tatarsky, a frustrated poet, takes a job as an advertising copywriter, and discovers a knack for putting a distinctively Russian twist on Western-style ads. But the deeper Tatarsky sinks into the advertising world, the more he wonders if he has sacrificed too much for money. His soaring success leads him into a surreal world of spin doctors, gangsters, drug trips, and the spirit of Che Guevara who, via a Ouija board, imparts to him the dazzling theory of WOWism, about how television destroys the individual spirit. Though named in honor of Lenin, Babylen opts instead to believe in his “Babylonian” destiny, and secretly searches for the beautiful goddess Ishtar, who becomes for him a symbol of fortune. Meanwhile, the people around Babylen - clients, colleagues - perish in the violent dog-eat-dog world of new Russian capitalism. In Nineties Moscow, this is taken as the ordinary course of daily affairs.

Tatarsky is invited to join an all-powerful PR firm run by a cynically ruthless advertising genius, Leonid Azadovsky. Genuine artifacts from Babylonian cults and pictures of Ishtar adorn Azadovsky’s office, and Tatarsky senses that he is getting closer to the object of his dreams. Azadovsky invites Tatarsky to participate in a secret process of rigged elections and false political advertising. And as a result of his brilliance, Tatarsky achieves the ultimate, as he creates and gets elected a "virtual" president. But like Faust selling his soul to the devil, this ex-humanist gradually descends to the level

of a reprobate, finding that he no longer belongs to himself, but is trapped in a virtual world of his own creation

In a ritualistic Babylonian initiation, Babylen replaces Azadovsky as head of the Agency. He finally meets Ishtar, the object of his obsession, just as he enters the very dream sequence that has inhabited his sleep for so long. There, he is offered control of the mechanism that produces “simple human happiness” - and can control the world. Yes, this story explores the philosophical theme of man’s identity in the modern branded world, and that’s the substance of the film - but not its tone. Pelevin's dark humor doesn't leave room for moralistic admonitions. Everything that takes place on the screen ranges from drily comic to farcical. But a certain aftertaste, of course, remains.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT I've always been drawn to stories that challenge the norm, and go beyond what¹s considered reality. I found Pelevin's brand of cyberpunk mysticism very appealing - dark, with a great sense of humor, and full of revelations about the world we live in. Generation P combined a lot of what I've lived through, both personally as a former creative in the service of the goddess Ishtar, and historically, as someone who closely witnessed the huge transformation in Russian society after communism. For me, Babylen Tatarsky¹s story is at once a realistic and ironic story about what happened to an individual, and to Russian society, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It¹s also a hallucinatory tale of the quest for gold, of how to make it in today¹s world, of a head-spinning rise to power, and a fall from grace. I was interested in seeing the border between real and virtual in Babylen¹s world gradually disappear, ultimately bringing the viewer to a place I hope they will recognize as the world we all live in today.

This is not a conventional narrative, so I looked for suspense in the psychological details of the dialogue scenes, in the rhythm and drive of the film, and in the ups and downs of Babylen’s journey - whether in a stand-off between gangsters, the election of a virtual president, or in the hallucinations which bring him enlightenment. The script was rewritten constantly, on the set and well into post-production. The making of the film took four long years of production alone, due to stop-and-go financing. This is a truly independent film, made without studio or government financing (despite our best efforts). But weirdly and fortunately, we did get partial financing from some of the major brands that appear in the film, without which this story would be impossible to tell. The film makes no compromises with the political absurdities of modern Russia. I tried to make a film about how the Nineties set the stage for the Putin era and the emergence of the matrix of contemporary consumer culture and the Russian corporate state, with its control of mass media,and virtual politicians

that get elected. There was real fear on the part of my distributor and investors that Gen P will not be granted the "distribution license" due to foul language and politics, including a scene with "banned" oligarch Berezovsky, and the scene of the creation of Putin-like virtual president, and his inauguration in Kremlin, where I used real footage of Putin's inauguration. But after 4 years in stop and go independent production, and lots of press, the buzz was so strong, and Facebook and Yandex (Russia biggest search engine) becoming our partners in the Russian release, nobody could stop us. So the film’s release was important for progressive people in Russia, and I'm glad that it had such a strong impact there, but I think the issues that this story deals with are universal.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Victor Ginzburg (Director) Victor Ginzburg moved from Moscow to the US at age 15, and got his film degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York. An award-winning director of music videos, documentaries, short films, and episodic television, Ginzburg's first feature was the documentary, RESTLESS GARDEN, about the vast social, cultural, and even sexual changes which took place in the first few years after the disappearance of the Soviet Union. It screened at festivals in Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Moscow, Sorrento, Sao Paulo, etc. For the last five years, Ginzburg has dedicated himself to the writing, producing and directing of GENERATION P, which opened on 540 screens across Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Ukraine in April of 2011. Well-received by both critics and audiences, the release of the film was a major event in Russia that attracted over a million moviegoers. At its international premiere, at the Karlovy Vary IFF, GENERATION P won a Special Mention Jury Prize. It was selected for the Vanguard Programme at the Toronto IFF and is continuing to be screened at many other international film festivals. Ginzburg currently resides in both Moscow and Venice, California. Aleksei Rodionov (Director of Photography) Aleksei Rodionov is one of Russia’s most celebrated cinematographers. He shot Elem Klimov’s harrowing Come and See, widely considered to be one of the greatest war films ever, and is well-known to western audiences through his work with Sally Potter - he was the DP for both Orlando (1992, with Tilda Swinton) and Yes (2003, with Joan Allen). Rodionov also shot Souleymane Cissé’s Waati (1995), which was nominated for a Palme D’Or at Cannes.

ABOUT THE CAST Vladimir Yepifantsev (Babylen Tatarsky) Vladimir Epifantsev graduated with an acting degree from Moscow's Schukin Theatre School, and with a directing degree from GITIS, the Russian theatrical arts academy. In 1994, he founded the “Prok-theatre,” one of Moscow's most progressive companies, and has continued working in both avant-garde and mainstream productions. Yepifantsev is especially well-known for action roles in movies and TV mini-series, such as Escape and Man From the East, and is married with two children. Mikhail Yefremov (Leonid Azadovsky) Grandson of a director of Moscow’s legendary Bolshoi Theater, Yefremov’s father was a famous actor and his mother a well-known actress and acting teacher at the Moscow Art Theater. He started acting at 13, and has had a popular and illustrious career in film, television, and stage. One of the most famous actors in Russia, he has won almost every dramatic and cultural award in that country, and is especially well-known for the films Middle Age Crisis (1998) and Frontier: the Taiga Novel (2000). He is equally adept in both comic and dramatic roles, and is married with four children. Andrei Fomin (Sergei Morkovin) Fomin first came to notice in the 1988 film Little Vera, which won awards at film festivals around the world. A well-known actor and celebrity in Russia, he is as comfortable in the theatre, or in films like the 2006 hit, Playing the Victim, as he is hosting television events, awards shows, or world-class parties from Moscow to Cannes. Vladimir Menshov (Farsook Farseikin) Equally well-loved as both a director and actor, Menshov is probably best-known for his direction of the 1979 Oscar-winning film, Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears, which starred his wife Vera Alentova. Though specializing in films about the everyday life of common people, political difficulties precluded him from attending the Oscars, and he is an outspoken critic of many aspects of Russian politics, culture, and cinema. As an actor, he has appeared in over 70 films, and western audiences will recognize him as one of the leads in Timur Bekmambetov’s films Night Watch and Day Watch. Sergey Shnurov (Andrei Gireyev) Shnurov, better known as “Shnur,” is one of the biggest rock stars in Russia. From 1997-2008, he fronted the hugely popular and controversial ska-punk band Leningrad, and after that, Rubl. He is also an accomplished actor (4) and film composer. His songs were used in Liev Schreiber’s film, Everything Is Illuminated, as well as the Grand Theft Auto videogame, and the hit Russian film Boomer (sometimes translated as Bimmer or Bummer). Andrei Panin (Kolya / Nikolai Smirnov) Starting off as a stage actor at the Moscow Art Theater, Fomin was from early on associated with the plays of Anton Chekhov, which he often performed in with his wife, the actress Natalya Rogozhina. Since 1999, he has enjoyed success in both films and television, and is also known as a director. Of special interest to GENERATION P fans, Panin played a character closely based on Vladimir Putin in the film A Kiss - Not for the Press. Oleg Taktarov (“Little” Vovchik) World Sambo Champion, Russian National Judo Champion, and four-time European and Asian Jujitsu Champion, Taktarov came to the US in 1995, and soon became the reigning UFC Champion. At the same time, he started studying acting at the famous Los Angeles Playhouse, and was soon championed by Robert DeNiro, with whom he has appeared in several movies. One of Russia’s most popular actors and a bestselling author, Taktarov has also appeared in such Hollywood films as We Own the Night (with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg), Predators, and Righteous Kill (with Al Pacino).

CAST

Vladimir Yepifantsev – Babylen Tatarsky Michael Yefremov – Leonid Azadovsky

Andrei Fomin – Sergei Morkovin Sergei Shnurov – Gireyev

Vladimir Menshov – Farsook Farseikin Andrei Panin – Kolya the driver / Nicolai Smirnov

Aleksandr Gordon – Vladimir Khanin Oleg Taktarov – “Little” Vovchik

Roman Trakhtenberg – Alexander Blo Ivan Okhlobystin – Malyuta

Renata Litvinova – Alla Andrey Vasiliev – Azadovsky advisor

Amalia Mordvinova - Lena Leonid Parfyonov – TV Journalist

Directed by

Victor Ginzburg

Director of Photography Aleksei Rodionov R.G.C.

Written and Produced by

Victor Ginzburg & Djina Ginzburg From the novel Generation “Π”

By Victor Pelevin

Produced by Victor Ginzburg, Djina Ginzburg, Aleksei Riazantsev, Stas Ershov

Executive Producers

Andrei Vasiliev, Yury Krestinskiy, Leonid Ogorodnikov, Danil Khachaturov, Vladimir Yakovlev, Andrew Paulson

Co-Producers

Jim Steele, Roger Trilling Dmitry Yurstvaig Ilia Shkop, Rafael Minasbekian

Associate Producers

Christine Havercroft, Ivan Zasursky, Stephen Benson,

Music by Kaveh Cohen & Michael David Nielsen, Alexander Hacke

Additional Music by

Sergei Shnurov

Music Supervisor

Roger Trilling

Edited by Anton Anisimov, Vladimir Markov, Karolina Maciejewska

with the participation of Irakly Kvirikadze

Concept Design by Alex Tylevich, Daniel Auber, Anton Vasiliev

Production Design by

Pyotr Prorokov, Nina Kobiashvili, Yury Matei, Dmitry Petrov

Art Director Ekaterina Harnas

Sound by

Olga Chokseyrek

Makeup Yelena Fomichyova Key makeup artist Yelena Gofman Key makeup artist

Sound Department Dmitri Ovchnnikov Supevising sound editor Sergei Shiposha Sound mixer Vladimir Pryamov Sound mixer Rick Ash Sound mixer Ryan Collins Supervising sound editor Henry Auerbach Dialogue editor Wade Barnett Sound effects editor Tim Limer Sound recordist

Visual Effects by

Arkadiy Dubinin Visual effects supervisor Vladimi Leschinski Visual effects supervisor Anton Vasiliev Visual effects supervisor Alexandra Afanasieva Compositor Pavel Akimov Visual effects artist Sknarin Alexander Lead CG artist Julia Ereshko Rotoscope artist Denis Gheiko Compositor Eugene Gittsigrat Art director Sofia Gorlenko Visual effects coordinator Arseny Gutov Digital compositor Ludmila Ivanova Compositor Dmitry Ivoylov Motion capture technical director

Mikhail Komissarov Compositor Mikhail Komissarov Digital artist Nikolay Koretsky Compositor Aleksandr Kozyakov Technical animator: motion capture Vladimir Leschinski Visual effects supervisor Maxim Levashov Digital artist Elena Lotanova Visual effects Andrei V. Nikitin Visual effects artist Olga Nikulina Visual effects coordinator Aleksey Osipenkov Digital compositor Aleksey Osipenkov Motion capture technology lead Dmitry Polyakov Compositor Pavel Raevskij Compositor Yury Rudakov Digital effects artist Natalia Shmidova Digital artist Natalya Shmidova Digital effects artist Pavel Shnitov Digital effects artist Yuriy Sorokin Digital compositor Anton Vassiliev Digital effects artist Denis Volkov Digital compositor Ilya Vostrov Models and sets

Stunts Martin Ivanov Stunt driver Viktor Ivanov Stunt coordinator Viktor Ivanov Stunt driver Alexander Kraevskiy Stunt rigger Oleg Poddubny Stunt player

Costume and Wardrobe Department Djina Ginzburg Costume designer

Oleg Matrokhin Key costumer Alexandr Petlyura Key costumer

Editorial Department Olga Nikulina Post-production coordinator Sergey Zaporozhtsev Colorist