A St. Petersburg Tale

In the summer of 2016, my girlfriend (now my wife and a producer) invited me to her hometown of St. Petersburg. I found myself captivated by the people I met, the city’s rich history, culture, architecture, and enchanting white nights. This sparked a dream within me—to make a film set in this splendid city, which had a remarkable blend of history and modernity.

I hadn’t visited my own native country, Iran, since I left in 2003 at age 18 to study film in Los Angeles. Contemplating the themes of identity, exile and homecoming, it came to mind that the emotional terrain of my story could be transposed to that of Aleksey. His thirty years in Berlin set the stage for his wondering just what was going on at home quite as I do about Tehran. He and I were both resigned to a kind of nostalgia tinged with regret.

Transposing the story to that of an older man inspired me to depict aspects of my father's behavior. After my parents separated, he would stalk my mother for months, hoping to win her back. Despite being an accomplished medical doctor, he acted out like an obstinate and impulsive teenager. It seems some people may never grow up,especially when it comes to matters of the heart.

I had written a short script about two friends having a conversation over lunch. One was depressed and confused about his girlfriend suddenly leaving, and the other trying to be sensitive to his friend’s feelings, even as he was excited about an upcoming first date. I resolved to knit that script into the current one, which came to be anchored in a series of exploratory conversations.

The second lead character I developed was the bohemian womanizer Nikolai, who provided a degree of warmth as he became Aleksey's guide to rediscovering his old life. Nikolai has a smart view of Aleksey's love life and encourages him to go forward toward happiness with Irina, despite his obsession with Nadia.

In June 2019, with 40 pages of the script in hand, I returned to St. Petersburg to workshop directing Russian actors in Russian. At that time, I cast the lead roles of Aleksey, Nikolai, and Irina, and connected with local crew members. Similar to the character he played, Aleksey Shtukin had left Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and returned after 18 years.

In summer of 2021 I returned to St. Petersburg to shoot the film, working with the same actors, in the same locations, and reshooting some of the same scenes we had workshopped two years earlier. As a fully independent production we worked with a limited budget.

I am particularly drawn to the philosophy of Italian Neorealism, focusing on everyday lives, natural dialogue, and exploring moral conditions. I liked how it rejected Hollywood conventions in favor of a documentary style—shooting on real locations with minimalistic camerawork and editing. This approach felt familiar from Iranian films and has deeply influenced me. I chose to avoid complicated designed shots and instead focus on performances. I decided to shoot entirely in real locations and draw on my 15 years of experience as a cinematographer, particularly in documentaries, to achieve a bright cinematic look.

The project began long before the onset of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. My hope is that it can be viewed with an open mind, detached from the current geopolitical difficulties. I hope this film transcends enmities as it fosters empathy and understanding during these challenging times.