By Ali Ikram
Spare a thought for the immigrant creative genius in the film Russian Snark, who came here in 1998 and failed to fire the imaginations of locals for his Soviet-style offerings.
In a tiny life raft acclaimed Latvian director Misha and his wife and muse Nadia sailed here after hearing of our country's reputation as a movie-making paradise
"He had a successful career in the Soviet era, but since glasnost it's faulted," says director Stephen Sinclair.
"So he wants to come out here because he's heard New Zealand is a country receptive to the ideas for film makers."
Misha's films are about one thing and one thing only - the human form against the landscape.
"I have no interest in narrative," he says. "Narrative is for children."
Surely it would be only a matter of time before New Zealand would be won over - surely?
"Russian Snark is an expression of my ambivalence towards the artiste," says Sinclair. "On the one hand I'm quite an obsessive writer myself, but when I see the same going on in other people I get frustrated with the self-obsession and ego mania in the artist."
It's also Sinclair's feature length debut in the director's chair after writing smash hit play Ladies Night and scripting on films like Braindead and Lord of the Rings.
With the majority of the film's dialogue in Russian, spare a thought for leading man Stephen Papps, who hails originally from Lower Hutt - but his performance received the seal of approval from the local Russian community."
"For me it was an opportunity to get away from the subject matter and the things that obsess us in New Zealand, to try something completely different."
While there's already been a mission to assess Russian interest in the film at the Moscow Film Festival, it has its premiere at our own fest later this month.
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