“Tulpa”: Russian horror film, but filmed in Argentina

Horror films are filmed in Buenos Aires (both intentional and otherwise). What is unusual is that a Russian horror film has now been filmed. In detail: a Russian-Argentine co-production of psychological horrordirected by the Muscovite Ivan Kapitonovwho brought along their art director and photography director, completing the rest of the team with local personnel.

Protagonists, Felipe Otaño (who played Páez Vilaró Jr. in “The Snow Society”) and Catalina Bender. Plot: Since the boy she is in love with does not notice her, a young girl invents in her head a “tulpa” exactly like the boy, that is, an imaginary figure that takes on real characteristics, but that, when the time comes, can decide on its own and become dangerous. Precisely, the name of the film is “Tulpa”.

“The filming was intense, with many scenes with a high dramatic content. And since the director doesn’t speak Spanish, he concentrated purely on the emotion, rather than on the dialogue. That’s why his directions were very interesting.”he commented Autumn.

Another thing that struck the Russian director as interesting: “Here everyone worked quickly and harmoniously. The only thing that struck me as strange, but also funny, was seeing that people eat three times a day at a strictly defined time. In Russia, the shooting day begins and the food arrives only six hours later, but here lunch can be served one or two hours after the start of the day, when everyone has just come home and is still full from breakfast. But well, these are their rules and maybe it is the right thing to do.”.

Director of a number of fantastic and romantic stories for teenagers, Kapitonov He is also a partner and producer of Svyatoslav Podganovsky. Some of his films have been released among us, and are highly appreciated by Argentine lovers of fantasy and horror cinema. Here is the dialogue with Kapitonov:

Journalist: Diego Curubeto, a great expert on the subject, wrote that “La sirena” was one of the great surprises of 2018, and that “Boda negra” had the air of a horror soap opera. Do you agree?

Ivan Kapitonov: The box office success of “The Mermaid” in Russia and several other countries surprised us all. It was sold to 156 countries! But now, looking back, we would have filmed it a little differently. “Black Wedding”, it is true, was born as a melodrama based on a mystical ritual.

Q: What distinguishes Russian fantasy cinema from productions of the same genre from other countries?

IK: Christianity came to us quite late, about a thousand years ago, and it was through the Eastern Orthodox branch. Therefore, in the popular tradition, pagan and shamanic ideas about the world are still closely intertwined with the Russian Orthodox religion. People still follow the old legends about all kinds of forest spirits, evil spirits, lake mermaids, swamp monsters, dead souls, and so on. In addition, in the last century the Soviet Union imposed a forced industrialization campaign, forcing many villagers to move to the big cities. People moved, but they took with them their traditions and beliefs, which thus penetrated the big cities, and they are still there.

Q: You were also a co-writer of “Leto,” a realistic play about Russian rockers in the 1980s, closely controlled by political commissars and nationalist conservatives.

IK: With that work we won many international awards and even entered the Official Competition at Cannes 2018.

Q: Kiril Serebrennikov, the director, was unable to attend. He was in prison for opposing Putin. How has your career as a producer and director been so far?

IK: I cannot evaluate it objectively. For me, cinema is a way of life and of thinking. I get enormous pleasure from making films, working in different countries and different genres. Each film is part of my life, it helps me remember myself at the time when I made it, what I lived, loved, dreamed, broke up, traveled, raised children. Films are like a time machine.

Q: And time brought you to this end of the world.

IK: We have big production plans in Argentina. We love your country very much and we want to build a systematic production of genre films here for international distribution. You have a very beautiful country, with very interesting provinces. And I really hope that we will film the next film in Patagonia. The current one was made in Buenos Aires. It seemed to me that you see it as something ordinary, but, I want to say, you have a very beautiful city.

Q: Speaking of seeing, how did the idea of ​​“Tulpa” come about, where an imaginary figure becomes almost real?

IK: My wife suggested the idea to me. I began to study the subject and realized that it was extremely interesting. Many people think that the story of Tibetan monks who, through meditation, manage to create a kind of corporeal ghost, visible to everyone, is true.

Q: In the United States, there are people who say they have recreated the horses from “My Little Pony” in their minds, and many believe it.

IK: But if you create a person, then that person can think for themselves, get jealous, for example, and make decisions. With Ana Berard, my Argentine co-writer, we very quickly found a common language and wrote this story of love, jealousy and ghosts, which we have just filmed. Please be patient, we will see it next year.