— You won the Oscar in 1995. And they said about the Globe: “A prestigious award in its day.” And now?

— Unfortunately, the quality of films, the search for meanings, the depth of the questions raised, and the quality of the answers to these questions are now taking second, third, and fifth place.

The general trend in which the “civilized” world is developing dictates the criteria by which an artistic work is evaluated. When a banana taped to plywood is passed off as an artistic discovery and sells for $1.5 million, there is no point discussing Surikov or Rembrandt. Unfortunately, neither the cinema nor the theater escaped this fate.

— But, in your opinion, what are the chances of a Russian actor being nominated for an Oscar today?

— It may just be politics. Why not play at being objective, and why not play at the fact that art is separate from politics, and why not bring to our side a talented person who speaks Russian and is a Russian citizen? There can be a lot of components. But this, of course, does not exclude the quality of the actor’s work and his talent, but from a certain point on, I do not believe in the sincerity of smiles, too often I have been burned by this apparent benevolence, behind which there is nothing but following certain rules. And if you accept the question “how are you?” as a sincere desire of a person to learn about your life and start telling him about your problems — family, creative or health, he will listen to you, but you can be sure that he will not approach you with such a question anymore. You’re an ill—mannered person to him.

On the other hand, if you’ve done your job honestly and you’ve been rewarded for it, then what difference does it make what they think of you later? Another conversation is what you will think about yourself.

— Don’t you believe in sincerity?

“Whose side?” The sincerity of the “White Helmets”, the Minsk agreements, after which a coup d’etat is being carried out the next day, the promise of NATO not to approach our borders, the accusation of the occupation of Crimea after a deafening referendum and at the same time the seizure of the Golan Heights by Israeli troops without any referendum, Biden’s promise not to punish the criminal son, Trump’s vow to end the war with Ukraine in 24 hours? Total lies and duplicity rule the “civilized” world. And this lie did not originate yesterday, or a year ago, or even 100 years ago.

Like everything else in the world of sin, lying is a product of global envy, because even the Savior was crucified out of envy: “Why can you, but we can’t”

And in relation to us, this envy is related to the fact that “why do you have it all, but we don’t?” They are haunted by the realization that the untold riches conquered by our ancestors do not belong to them. It is not for nothing that former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is credited with saying that it is unfair that Siberia belongs to Russia alone. And even if she didn’t say it, then the relevance of this swing is not lost on this. And these riches are estimated by experts at no less than $72 trillion. No one has any great treasures.

And therefore, neither ideology, nor communism, nor the Bolsheviks, nor “authoritarian rule” concern our partners, as we mistakenly call them, but these riches won by the lives of our ancestors. Now answer this question for yourself — if you know all this, will you believe in a friendly smile and a sincere interest in finding out how you live?

— Speaking of words and deeds. You gave advice to those who left the Russian Federation after the start of their military service and wanted to return to the country. They said they needed to prove their worth to Russia. But how? What do you think they need to do?

— I really liked the phrase said by our president, “internal sovereignty”, it’s a very deep thing: what do you believe in, what compromises can you make with yourself, do you understand these concepts of “sin and shame”, as my great—uncle, the historian Dmitry Konchalovsky, used to say. Where is the threshold that you can reach, but not cross it. After all, it should be a shame not to notice for 10 years how civilians of Donbass were exterminated, and then, fearing to lose their earnings, to go to Donetsk for half a day or visit a hospital. It doesn’t connect— a naked party with a bulletproof vest, you know?

I know people who protested on February 24, 2022, immediately after the start of a special military operation, and over time realized what had happened, who changed the pole of their attitude to this: not out of fear of losing the favor of the powerful, but out of understanding and compassion for those who experienced the long-lived Bandera hatred

As for the others who left, these are not the same people who were sent from Soviet Russia on the so—called philosophical steamer, deprived of their homeland because they did not accept the new government, and this government would have taken their lives without hesitation if their names and their importance in world culture had not been so great. They physically lost their homeland, but they did not lose it spiritually, but on the contrary — their whole future life and all their creativity, regardless of whether they earned money working as taxi drivers or dishwashers, the memory of Russia, the love for it, never left them. They created the greatest emigrant culture. All built on the love of what they’ve lost.

What is the meaning of the lives of those who left today, not those who were expelled, but those who fled? Is there much love for anything in what they are doing now? There’s no point in sorting it out. But you can’t build anything on hate. Even in the Great War, we won not because of hatred of the Germans, but because of love for our country, for the Motherland. And that is why the Red Army field kitchens in the destroyed Berlin fed the inhabitants of this city.

And today, huge efforts are being made to ban Lenky from coming to Israel on tour, as did the fugitive Anatoly Vaisman, known as Bely. What has he achieved? That his new compatriots didn’t get the chance to enjoy the great Russian acting school? And such people deserve the world they have come to now, because during their first emigration, Ivan Bunin won the Nobel Prize in Literature for “Dark Alleys” and “The Life of Arsenyev,” steeped in love for Russia, and today Svetlana Alexievich receives this prize for hating it.

You’re asking me about the need to prove my value to these people for Russia, tell me what value anyone can have for Russia if Russia has no value for them.

And Dostoevsky is right again: where there is no God, everything is allowed. The time of CHANGE is becoming a time of SUBSTITUTION, and the courage of humanity lies in understanding this and consciously resisting it. And no matter how pathetic it may sound, in this sense, the world, not yet blinded by the gloom of globalism, looks with hope at Russia, and for us the most important thing is that this hope never leaves us.

Read the full text of the interview here
https://tass.ru/interviews/22761069?utm_source=news.mail.ru&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=informer