Director sticks to independent vision

The director of a films that range in topic from sexual deviance and fin de siecle pornography ("About Freaks and Men") through pulp fiction-style blockbusters with hugely popular rock and pop soundtracks ("Brother," "Brother 2") to his 2007 offering ("Cargo 200," a morality tale set in the last days of the Soviet Union that features rape, murder, rotting corpses and a psychotic cop), Balabanov is a name many in the Russian film community think deserves wider recognition.

Eschewed by Russia's film-funding establishment -- his latest movie, "Morfii," based on a short story by Mikhail Bulgakov about heroin addiction, failed like earlier films to win a share of state production support -- Balabanov is backed by producer Sergei Selyanov.

Selyanov, arguably Russia's leading independent producer, represents some of the strongest currents in the country's cinematic tradition. Since founding his St. Petersburg-based studio STV in 1992, he has made more than 50 movies, documentaries and animated films.

"Aleksei Balabanov is an outstanding Russian director; everyone agrees he is a major figure within the national cinema," Selyanov says.

Selyanov has produced all except the first two of Balabanov's films and is a devoted fan: When private funding disappeared overnight for "Morfii" -- one backer was arrested on serious criminal charges and the other disappeared in China following a business dispute -- the producer stepped in to fund the film's $3.7 million budget himself.

A mild winter and resulting lack of snow added yet more costs for the winter-set movie, meaning some scenes had to rely on expensive artificial snow.

Selyanov says judicious financial juggling and cost savings elsewhere meant the additional costs were not too crippling and the film was still expected to wrap on time in late April.

Such devotion is reflected by auds.

Balabanov -- who rejoices in the classically Soviet middle name of Oktyabrinovich (meaning his father was named Oktyabrin after the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917) -- has built up a cult following.

Russians love his eclectic mix of genres and even films regarded as relative duds, such as "Blind Man's Bluff," a farcical crime comedy that included award-winning director and Moscow Film Festival topper Nikita Mikhalkov in a starring role, are well received by aficionados on the international film circuit.

Roland Rust, head of Germany's Cottbus Festival of Eastern European Cinema, says he's proud of the international attention his festival had given Balabanov, which had "year after year programmed his latest films."