Start of a film career
Pershin began his film career by filming short films. This happened in 2009. The first of them were “Dragon Abas Blue”, “Pushkin’s Duel” and “Kazrop” (he co-directed the latter with Oleg Glushkov, with whom he worked at the “School of Modern Play” theater).
Already in 2010, the director took a creative pseudonym. He later explained that he wanted to distance himself from the image of a “television craftsman.” The film “Happy Purchase,” signed by Zhora Kryzhovnikov, is based on Pershin’s own play “My Boyfriend is a Robot.” The eight-minute story tells how, in the near future, an android tries to adapt to the character of an ordinary woman.
The film was presented at several film festivals and won three awards - “for best script” at the METERS festival, a special jury prize at the F5 festival and a diploma at the St. Anna film festival.
Zhora Kryzhovnikov’s next short film, “The Curse,” was made in the “found footage” genre (the genre has been popularized since the late 90s by such films as “The Blair Witch Project,” “Paranormal Activity,” “Report” and “Monstro”).
Film career
After successfully graduating from his native directing department in 2009, Zhora actively began working on projects. The man made his first major and confident steps in the field in 2009-2011. Then he made a significant contribution to the shows “Big Difference” and “Carnival Night”. A special page in Kryzhovnikov’s career was the work on the Kazakh analogue of the famous “Star Factory” in Russia. The program was extremely popular and gave Zhora a lot of experience.
The next stage of the career ladder was cooperation with the popular Russian channel STS. Here Zhora had a hand in the comedy shows “Valera-TV” and “Unreal Story”. Kryzhovnikov was also lucky enough to direct the third season of the successful “Kitchen,” a beloved popular series about the restaurant business.
Gradually, Zhora began working on unique projects. Thus, his first short film “The Curse” was released in 2012. This was followed by several commercially successful comedies, created together with Timur Bekmambetov. “Gorko”, “Gorko-2”, “The Best Day” - all these films became a real sensation in modern cinema and even brought Kryzhovnikov the Nika Award.
Subsequently, Zhora was also involved in the development of Russian comedy. Light and relaxed films from the “Christmas Trees” series, the unique film “An Imperfect Man” and many others became a direct reflection of the director’s skill. Kryzhovnikov often faces criticism, but still continues to work and create especially for fans of his creations.
"Bitterly!" and “Bitter! 2"
An arthouse casting story, filmed in half a day and filled with obscene language, interested producers Ilya Burts, Dmitry Nelidov, Sergei Svetlakov and Timur Bekmambetov, who were looking for a director for the comedy film “Gorko!”
"Bitterly!" became the first full-length film for the young director. The film about Russian wedding traditions was a great success: with a budget of $1.5 million, it grossed $25.5 million.
There were no stars in the picture. The same Yegor Koreshkov, who played the role of the groom, by that time had less than 10 episodic roles in films. A little more experienced was Yulia Alexandrova, who had already appeared with Valeria Gai Germanika in the TV series “School” and the feature film “Everyone Will Die, But I’ll Stay.” The choice in their favor was due to the fact that they had already starred with the director in that same “Happy Purchase”.
The success of the film led to the appearance of the second part, which was also directed by Zhora Kryzhovnikov. The film became the most profitable Russian film of 2014, but the box office was not the same (only $13.4 against a budget of $2.5 million). However, the success of the first part led to the purchase of the rights to film a remake in Mexico, which appeared in 2018.
“Bitter!”, “Christmas trees” and “The Best Day”
The young director made his debut in feature films in 2009, directing the short films “Pushkin’s Duel”, “Dragon Abas Blue”, “Kazrop” in a duet with Oleg Glushkov. Pershin’s first independent film work was the short film “Happy Purchase,” which was released in 2010. In the credits for the film, the director called himself Zhora Kryzhovnikov for the first time.
Two years later, another short film by Zhora appeared - the tragicomedy “The Curse”. Having seen this work by Kryzhovnikov, Timur Bekmambetov and Sergei Svetlakov suggested that the young director make a comedy about a wedding. The film project “Gorko” became the first full-length film performed by Kryzhovnikov. The film raised many questions among critics, but the audience received it with a bang.
The attempt of the newlyweds Natasha (Yulia Alexandrova) and Roman (Egor Koreshkov) to hold their wedding in the Russian tradition for their parents and relatives and in the European style for their friends at some point got out of control. Unforeseen circumstances connected two separate events into a wedding mess, in which the characters of Sergei Svetlakov, Yan Tsapnik, Elena Valyushkina, Vasily Kortukov, Yulia Sules, Sergei Lavygin were not lost either.
The comedy “Gorko” exceeded its production budget by 16 times at the box office and became an event in the world of Russian cinema. A year later, the heroes of the film met again in its sequel. This time the situation revolves around a funeral. To save himself from creditors, Natasha's stepfather fakes his own death and watches the funeral preparations from the coffin.
In 2014, Zhora Kryzhovnikov helped create the comedy project Kitchen, although he appears in the credits as Ivan Tokhtamysh.
In December 2015, the film “The Best Day,” directed by Zhora Kryzhovnikov, was released. The film with the participation of Dmitry Nagiyev, Yulia Alexandrova, Olga Seryabkina, Sergei Lavygin, Inna Churikova, Mikhail Boyarsky, Elena Yakovleva, Andrei Malakhov brought the creators more than $10 million in profit.
The audience liked the story about the ordinary traffic policeman Pyotr Vasyutin, who was about to marry his beloved girl Olga. But, having detained the capital’s singer in a state of alcoholic intoxication, Vasyutin could not resist the temptation to turn a blind eye to the offense. The star left for Moscow, and Petya not only lost his job, but also had a fight with Olga, who doesn’t even want to see her unfaithful groom.
In despair, Vasyutin goes to drown himself, but suddenly he himself becomes a TV star. But fame and popularity are not at all a joy for him. Peter wants to return to Olga, but will the girl forgive him?
In 2021, Zhora Kryzhovnikov directed the comedy “New Christmas Trees,” in which well-known and new characters from the popular project performed by Ivan Urgant, Sergei Svetlakov, Yulia Alexandrova, Dmitry Nagiyev, Elena Yakovleva, Taisiya Vilkova fall in love, quarrel, make peace, and find themselves in unpleasant situations and perform heroic deeds. And all this happens on New Year’s Eve, which means there will be miracles.
On his page on the social network Facebook, Zhora Kryzhovnikov shared his plans for the future, informing fans of his work that he had started filming the comedy Call DiCaprio. The plot of the film should unfold around the life of the failed actor Lev, who is jealous of the success of his younger brother Yegor. But one day, by chance, the brothers will have to switch roles.
“The Best Day” and more
After two parts of a comedy about a wedding, Kryzhovnikov shot two more short films. One of them is “Accidentally”, the second is “New Russians”.
After a pause, the director returned with a new comedy. In the film “The Best Day” he starred the same Yulia Alexandrova, Dmitry Nagiyev and the lead singer of the Serebro group Olga Seryabkina (now in ex-status). Zhora wrote the script for the film together with Alexei Kazakov. Colleagues relied on the classic play by Alexander Ostrovsky “An old friend is better than two new ones.”
The film became the highest-grossing domestic film of 2015. The film grossed over $10.5 million at the box office (with a budget of $2 million).
Timur Bekmambetov, who produced “Gorko!”, remembered Kryzhovnikov when it was decided to shoot another film from the “Yolki” series. Ivan Urgant, Sergei Svetlakov, Dmitry Nagiev, as well as Elena Yakovleva and Yulia Alexandrova were involved in the film “New Christmas Trees”.
The director also made his mark in the serial field. In 2014, he filmed some of the episodes of “Kitchen”, but there he is listed in the credits as Ivan Tokhtamysh, Wikipedia clarifies.
His other major project, already under a memorable pseudonym, was the series “Call DiCaprio!” with Alexander Petrov and Andrei Burkovsky in leading roles. The series won two awards at the Movement film festival. One – “for the best script” – went to Kryzhovnikov and his co-authors, the second – “for the best acting tandem” – to Petrov and Burkovsky.
BURUNOV VIBRATED LIKE A STRING
— How did you come up with the idea to write the script for “Family”?
— Alexey Kazakov played an important role here, the man with whom we wrote both “Gorko!” and “Gorko! 2,” and “The Best Day Ever.” He had long ago had the idea of a script about a joint journey between father and son, in which the father tries to somehow re-educate his son, and the son, on the contrary, tries to get rid of his father’s pressure. At first the plot was completely abstract, then the idea arose that the hero wanted to sing at the Grushinsky festival a song that he had composed a long time ago, but which he was embarrassed to perform on stage...
And then there was a very important meeting with Sergei Burunov. He was very touched by the topic of tyrant parents who pass on their traumas to their children, who pass them on to their grandchildren. Parents resist their children's independence and at the same time transfer their misfortunes onto them. Moreover, it seems to me that this is a nationwide situation. It didn’t affect me, my dad has always been loving and supportive, but in general there’s a lot around it. And Sergei Alexandrovich vibrated like a string when he heard about this plot... That’s how it all finally came together: a story about family as a curse and as a blessing, about painful coexistence with people you can’t stand but love. Relatives constantly strike at you, because a loved one is the one you cannot miss. If you decide to offend him, he will not dodge. Here is a person walking on the street, he can say something in response, and it can bounce off him. But it won’t bounce off the native one. Besides, you know him well and understand where you can hurt him the most. So family is a blood connection, boxing, fighting without rules, but under the guise of great love. “I love you, so I’m telling you straight: you’re ugly.” It was Sergei Alexandrovich who recalled in some interview how his mother told him: “Well, where are you going to become an artist with such a face? Have you seen yourself in the mirror?
Photo: Ksenia Ugolnikova
— You have three main characters in the film - grandfather (Sergei Shakurov), father (Burunov) and son (Semyon Treskunov...)
— Problems are transmitted most clearly through the male line. Women are more adaptable. They have both patience and the internal ability to resist this. At least Irina Pegova in “Relatives” plays a woman who somehow envelops her husband, calms him down, strokes him, kisses him all the time. She is such a sedative. And the man will either be broken by this kind of paternal upbringing, or he will stand and leave - forever, or for twenty years. At the same time, having inherited the latent, unconscious trauma of dislike.
— How did the theme of the Grushinsky Festival come about?
— As a child, I lived in a communal apartment, and my neighbor had a poster from the Grushinsky Festival hanging in his room - he participated in some kind of song competitions. This picture was impressive. There are a lot of people, there is a guitar-shaped stage on the water, and a man sings from it. And I thought that Burunov’s hero is almost like my neighbor, well, maybe five years younger. He could well have written something in his youth, and then life began with its crises, and he never went on stage to play guitar, only the picture hung on the wall ever since... We were not interested in the Grushinsky Festival as a source of humor: Even “Ural Dumplings” and Comedy Club stopped joking with bards, it all went so far to the sidelines. And we did not intend to be ironic at the fans of the original song. That is why, by the way, Oleg Mityaev, when he found out that we wanted to film something about the Grushinsky Festival, he contacted us, asked to read the script and, as he read it, became our ally and starred in the film.
Photo: Ksenia Ugolnikova
Alexander Petrov. Biography
Back in 2021, Kryzhovnikov was entrusted with filming a sequel to the film “Ice” about figure skating. The director's film starred Alexander Petrov and Aglaya Tarasova. The latter received the Golden Eagle Award for her role as a figure skater in the first part.
The premiere of the sports melodrama in Russia was staged on Valentine's Day - February 14, 2021.
In addition to Petrov and Tarasova, Maria Aronova, Yulia Khlynina, Nadezhda Mikhalkova and Sergei Lavygin were involved in the film.
