Lucky Love

I am Angelina Zemlyanova. I was born in the small provincial town of Yegoryevsk near Moscow. That's why the whole film "Lucky in Love" was shot in this very small town. For example, the dacha is my uncle's country house. Karaoke is a really existing institution in Egoryevsk, where there was only a small revision made by the production designer. It was very important for me to make the film at home.

Gossip Girl in the store is a real barmaid from the bar where we were shooting, that's where I met her. She turned out to be such a colorful character that I couldn't resist her real charm, she's not acting in the film, she's a real character, just like in real life. The man who sings in the karaoke is the father of my best friend from my childhood, whom I have known all my life, he has always been a very artistic person, it was very important for me to film him, because their family is part of my childhood. He sings the song whose lines became the title of the film. It's the song my dad always sings at home when the family gets together to sing karaoke at our house.

At first, we filmed all the outside passes of the car in Moscow, but that didn't suit this movie at all. So we did an additional shoot in Egoryevsk exclusively with the car drives through the places of my childhood. The road to my school, next to my house, the main street - the historic part of town. The backgrounds for the interior shots were also shot in this town.

It was important for me to use the texture of my town to reveal this particular story that happened to my brother. It took place in these very conditions.

My friend and coauthor Anton Kryzhanovsky told me the story of a completed relationship with an older woman. The main idea of the film is how prejudices above all in ourselves keep us from being happy.
Anton intersex. We decided that we didn't have enough time in the short meter to explain it when the story wasn't about that. I was in the process of accepting my bisexuality. It was decided to make the character specifically bisexual. So the main character turned out to be like both of us. The main character was based on Anton's girlfriend.
This story came close to me, because I had seen the same relations with my own brother. With the same ending. It made me sad to see how bad he was feeling. So I wanted to leave hope for couples like that.
A similar story is more likely to happen in a provincial town. I was born in Yegoryevsk, near Moscow. I wanted to capture the flavour of the place. That's where we shot the whole short film, except for the scene in the car. It was filmed in a chromakey studio, but even the backgrounds were taken in my native Yegoryevsk.
At the time we were looking for locations not everyone had been approved for supporting roles. In the bar where we shot the final scene, I met the bartender Julia. Her charisma and the way she spoke fascinated me. She was perfect for the gossip girl in the store scene. Yulia is absolutely organic in her nature. But since Julia is not a professional actress, it was hard for her to remember the order of the lines and their accuracy. Therefore, there is no double plan in the scene. During the editing process, I wanted to make sure there was one. But in the end, in my opinion, the absence of this shot only emphasizes the dissociation of the main character from society in the face of Gossip Girl.
For a long time we could not figure out how the bartender - the character who embodies us as authors and the inner voice of doubt of the heroine - should look like. Anton himself offered his candidacy. And I am pleased with the choice in his favor. He faithfully conveyed our attitude to the story.
Filming of the main episode at the cottage was scheduled for the end of October. We had chosen my uncle's cottage back in the summer. At the time of shooting, the weather was already frosty and the house could not be warmed up. The characters had steam coming out of their mouths while talking. This visual effect made the coldness in the characters' relationship more evident. Even though it was very cold during the shooting, I'm glad that it was winter weather.