It is common knowledge that the master touch of the movie manager makes the script ready for shooting. Alexander, could you tell the movie viewers how the script has been replenished?

From the start Dmitrey Sobolev’s script was aimed at shooting a low budget movie. I read the story and took to it at once. But to my mind it lacked spectacular scenes and live characters. I invited two playwrights to write up the script. One of them was brushing up the dialogue, the other working at the development of the story line. It was Olga Gudanetz who added poignancy and movement to the script originally more contemplative. As a result of this combined effort, the main character has been put under more pressures and tougher conditions, so that his every step becomes significant. I think, we’ve hit it, having created the chain of events, battering Andrew into the tough corner. At the end of the movie Andrew is to make his final decisive choice. In fact in one day the main character takes 20 decisions, making his choice 20 times. Ultimately, his life has been changed completely. We were trying to create a really extreme situation for Andrew, where he would feel like in a meat grinder, so to speak. In short, one day of his life, brimmed up with events, comprises the plot of the movie. I have known Amet Magomedov since we studied together in the studio of Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov. Amet Magomedov wrote up dialogues. To my mind he added humor to the script. Firstly, the movie was to be a drama, now it might be called an ironical drama. This humorous lining is essential for the script as the movie is about advertising.

A lot of new books, movies, sequels have recently appeared connected in one way or another with the advertising industry. One of the most popular books is Frederick Begbeder’s bestseller “99 franks”. Is there anything in common between your movie and this book?

Both of them are about advertising. I believe, the book pays tribute to our contemporary time. Advertising is being thought of, talked about, discussed. Evidently, it is topical nowadays for our society. The truth is Begbeder mocks at advertising and eventually at his characters. We take our characters seriously though not without a grain of humor. Sometimes their moves and actions make me smile but never maliciously. Andrew, in contrast to Begbeder’s main character, has such qualities that don’t diminish his love for his wife, his family, his future baby. He gets into the fix, afraid to lose his job, not because he is a loafer by nature, idling about, a grown-up-kid. Andrew has a wife being in labor that very day, who gives birth to a son. He is a dutiful father, he feels responsible for his wife, his son. Andrew is trying to settle financial problems.

The movie is expected to have unusual advanced modern stylistics, isn’t it?

When I started working at the movie I thought first or all how I was going to unravel the events of our contemporary life, the meaning I was going to give them. If someone finds my way of interpreting the events disturbing or shocking, I won’t feel anxious. My concern is to touch upon topical problems with updated means of cinema language. To get home to the movie viewers, saturated with whiz-bang effects, one must be outspoken, frank even defiant. In the movie “20 cigarettes” we were striving at succulent language. During our work with the designer, cameraman advanced decisions have been found with the handling of the camera shots, lighting the settings. But we tried to work within restrictions at a certain cultural level, not to slip down to the vulgar and obvious.

Have you chosen the settings for shooting? Tell the cinema goers about them.

The sites have been 90 percent chosen. At the beginning of our work I saw all the buildings for the shots hi-tech styled. The city was to be not just modern — glass, concrete, plastic — but routinely glamorous. Polished, resounding mega police with comparatively little living place for its dwellers. Taking rides about the city we found out that it was in fact a gigantic building site. Moscow looked like an ant-hill, changing shape at our stare. In a fortnight the setting we had chosen looked a different place. A new image of the city being modified, rebuilt, renovated sprang up in my head. The change, that are going on with the mega police in the ironical drama “20 cigarettes” aren’t regarded so cheerfully as in the movies of the 60’s. They are met with apprehension. In our movie this building site is like a malignant tumor, growing, spreading, eating into the city, uncontrolled.

What image, to your mind, is difficult to create on the screen?

One of the most complicated images to act out on the screen is the character of the Yoghurt Queen. She is a hardcore business woman, upright, calculating and merciless. Opinions of other people do not count. She is the one that never errs. At first this character seemed cardboard. We decided to make her a loving mother, for surely, she’s got her feelings. In the movie the Yoghurt Queen concedes for the sake of her daughter. This conflicting and controversial personality will be difficult to act on the screen.

To make a real roller coaster both emotionally and visually the work of the whole team is important. Who will play the leading parts?

I think we’ve found an excellent crew. Ilya Lubimov is cast for the main character. Maxim Syhanov who gave a startling and stunning performance of Stalin in the sequel “Children of the Arbat” is going to play Andrew’s boss. Svetlana Ivanova, a young talented actress, a VGIK graduate will play Lisa. Svetlana has acted in a number of feature movies; “France and Polina” is one of them. Powerful drive and “lust for life” relate Lisa and her mother. I hope that Galina Tunina is the very actress for the challenging character of the Yoghurt Queen.

What part do cigarettes play in the movie?

Of course, they are not movie characters. 20 cigarettes measure the time span, allotted the main character to define his assets. They mark the time. It is a device used in the movie to throb the rhythm. We’ve designed a special cigarette packet labeled “20 cigarettes”. Every time the main character takes a cigarette out, the number on the packet changes. Firstly, the figure shown on the packet is 20 and then gradually the number detracts. So, time is flying fast away with every cigarette. It adds pressure and intensity to the action. That’s that.

What’s the theme of the movie?

I enjoy movies that set me thinking. There is advertising, humor, suspense in the movie and one more thrilling moment — the birth of the son. The process of child bearing, Andrew’s wife is being in labor, though not shown on the screen is of vital importance. The story is unfolding while this labor is going on. The miracle happens, the baby is born. If Andrew had realized that the burden of his previous life would have been inevitably felt by his son, his life would have been different.