«Do not judge by appearance» – goes the wise saying. But who could even think that a young man, an actor of one of the most prestigious Russian theatres – Peter Fomenko’s Theatre-Workshop – starring mainly as evil characters in several popular series, a handsome man Ilya Lubimov is a warrior, a thinker and even a theologian. The last Lubimov’s part in cinematography is the main part in Alexander Goronovsky’s film based on Dmytry Sobolev’s script, in which the most ancient and vital topics are hidden behind modern, avant-guard style and youth ad-like format…

There are 20 cigarettes in the pack of the main character , advertiser Andrey. He smokes 20 cigarettes within one very important day for him – the day when his son is to be born. Do you remember how this day started?

Andrey lights up the first cigarette at the moment he speaks with his wife on the phone, she is in maternity home. When she asks: «Are you smoking?», he replies «Oh, no. Why? I promised. Remember?» And, of course, he starts to smoke exactly the minute after…

He promised to give up smoking, probably, because after his child’s birth he wanted to start a new life…

Yes, but he got involded into a hard foght. His enemy is much stronger, than we can even think. This enemy is invisible, every human fights it every single day. Please, note that the first cigarette appears right at the moment the main character speaks his choice and proclaims the first step: «Yes, I quit smoking. But what for? For the word given to the wife. For the beloved one.» The main character wants to give up something in the name of love. Though, as soon as he speaks it, the Evil One arranges everything his own way, so Andrey finds himself impossible to fight the temptation and starts his first cigarette in just a minute.

The filmed pack mystically transforms: number 20 turns into 19. Every smoked cigarette makes this number less…

The film’s script is composed in a very cunning way. It can be conditionally divided into 20 fights. The main character stands these 20 fights, surprisingly loosing every one of them. At each step, having spoken his own decision, Andrey gives up in a minute, loses and of course, smokes another cigarette. By doing this he betrays himself, everything most precious for himself, he inevitably loses himself and his love. As a result there are 20 lost fights and every smoked cigarette indicates the end of one fight and the beginning of another.

Does that mean than «20 cigarettes» is a film about unending weakness of a human?

It is a film about weakness, about the Fall and I would say about the lack of chastity in a human. By chastity I mean the old Slavic «whole thinking», «whole wisdom», being able to see things in the whole. «20 cigarettes» is a sad story and very instructive in many ways. As a result of every fight the main character gains some of the material goods, the gifts of civilization while loosing himself. Dmitry Sobolev’s favourite topic is a contradiction of the two worlds – material and spiritual ones. The essence is expressed clearly in the script: the main character wins fame and the treasures of the material world, but loses the main thing, namely his immortal soul. That is why we can hear Andrey’s scream in the very end of the film – his soul cries out into the sky. He appeals to the sky, for he endlessly loses the fight between the light and the dark and suffers now. Like every one of us, by the way. Andrey is one of the thousands, one of the millions. «20 cigarettes» is a cry of the generation, its self-deception, its misfortune.

Spiritual and material are antipodes to your mind. But Christianity is not the religion of confrontation but the religion of possible reconciliation of these two, of the spirit transforming the matter. Can really a modern man be a single whole?

As far as I understand these two worlds never cross in there main point, but they create a conflict inside of every one of us, who chose the path of the warrior of light. Christianity reveals the spirit from passions of this world, which is mainly material. The one who carries the Cross realizes that the Cross is a sign of the Christ’s warrior, for there is an invisible independent battle inside of every one of us. The spirit is able to control the matter as well as the matter is able to conquer the spirit.

Anyway this world sneeks into us and the endless fight to death begins, spiritual death namely. It’s so easy to lose this fight as well as to notice the enemy for he is much stronger, slyer and the whole material world belongs to him...

To the Prince of this World... In the very end of «Devil’s Avocate» the character played by Al Pachino almost defeated by Kianu Reeves’ character, the last minute catches him on his other passion: «Vanity is my favourite sin»...

That is why Andrey’s story in «20 cigarettes» is a story of one separate invisible fight of one day so vital nowadays. It’s so easy to lose you path and to forget where you headed to, to lose directions and yourself. At this very moment when our spirit dies under the load of material stuff, playing up to every human, career growth, public aknowledgements, our soul starts to cry. It happens day by day, every century. The final scream extends this story beyond the time limits, beyond the certain society limits.

In the film we notice a special way of character’s thinking – in the manner of TV commercials and jingles. He can’t be himself even in his thoughts, his sub-conciousness reminds ads. He even imagines his child visually drawn in the ad. Seems like this way of thinking was not typical of previous generations...

The material world totally took over this man’s soul, his conciousness deals only with this world’s constructions. The character walks his life only touching the surface. Like many other present-day people he doesn’t think about the essence of living, he operates only by the stuff belonging to material world where there is no place left for spirituality and true love, but there are many other things. Thus he represents our generation and, in fact, he becomes a «present-day-hero»”.

He is not a bad guy, not guilty of anything but he fell. I’m not trying to show him in a bad way, I really sympathize him. Becides every fall may be followed by the rise.

Yes, he broke the promise given to his wife – he lighted up a cigarette. After that he finds himself in numerous foolish, dead-end situations thoughout this day. First of all he tried to keep to his office ethics, he seemed not to have wanted to have a sexual rellationship with his offended client’s daughter, he is not at all responsible for her being kidnapped, he didn’t think of any betrayal...

When we use such frases like «he finds himself in...», «it turned out...» etc., we are likely to pass the responsibility on to someone else. But who took the steps, which lead to these situations, who was the one to make decisions? Yes, he found himself in all these situations, but wasn’t he the one, who let these situations form around him? Oh, no, I’m inclined to think that the man is responsible for everything in his life. His fate is a result of his actions, his deeds. Andrey could have stopped everything that was going on around him: like he could have obstained from vanity in his office and not to come to a contradiction with his client ruining his career. He thought he loved his wife, he cincerly believed in it, but it became clear that even in the name of love he can’t sacrifise the wish to smoke a cigarette. He could have changed a lot in his life if he had a spiritual basis for this stand. Of couse, sometimes circumstances spoil everything and at first sight it seems that the Prince of this World makes it impossible to change anything, but it’s in the man’s power to turn to Him who would always help and make the first right step with His support. That is why there is no accidental brick fallen onto your head. If it happens, that means that you yourself came to be at this very place for that. You take the responsibility and it gives hope that one isyou are able to change something in your life.

A person dealing with business, advertising, PR can’t live the real life, when he has to sell all the time cheating on the buyers consiously or unconsiously...

Let the one who is inncocent be the first to through the rock. There is no human not overloaded with one passion or anoher, certain actions, weaknesses and thoughts. But whatever one does, even if he has to cheat on others for business, in case he has something to survive the stand, at least one reason to repent – it is the first important step to save his humanity. Inspite of all the evil we do, we can save our soul. It’s important not to forget about the main thing, to have the inner censor. My main character was even deprived of this little he needed. Hisarrogance didn’t save him from responsibility. This I find a very vital tiopic for the present day generation.

For those who have awareness «the law is written in their hearts»...

Sometimes every person feels his soul suffering even if everything looks pretty good in his life, the soul is in pain, there is a heavy load on it, but bery few take notice of this pain, very few come to a dialogue with it. The vioces of this world say: forget about everything, about your inner troubles, take it all easy, relax. And a human listens to these voices as a rule and «drinks over», «smokes over», «drugs over» and «buys over» this pain – does his best not to feel it. He never tries even to deal with the question why the soul is aching. But then comes the time to pay for everything. Without appeal? Yes. But the whole world lives according to these laws thousand years. It’s never too late to remind people that not knowing the laws does not save from resposibility. There is knowledge that supports life, opens one’s eyes, helps not to fall, but even if so, to get up and go on, the knowledge that makes people really happy. Our main character thinks he heads to his happiness all the way, but finally he comes to the edge of emptyness.

You are an actor. Every day you have to hide yourself behind different masks, to play, to cheat... How does it coinside with your worldview?

I’m trying to save my inner feelings. There are two institutions in the world that help a man to cure and save his soul. The Institution of Art that looks openly at the Institution of Church. Art and faith are the two pillars on which all the humankind stands. Experiencing this inner fight through tears ans sweat thus returning myself to light and not forgetting about the main thing, I walk, I fall and keep on going. Irrespective of the role I play and the words I say I try to remind others about it. My paltry mission is to cry out, to scream out to people so they could turn to look at themselves. Let it be not my own words and not my own face but the mask, but I want to remind everyone what the real life is, to let people think and perhaps even feel scared or experience some other emotions. I don’t think I’m saving anyone, it’s not my business, but I scream, I cry out about what matters to me, I do it from the screen, from the stage, hitting one's sore spot and making one think…

What suggestions on the roles do you accept?

I’m trying not to cheat on myself, I accept only something that is interesting for me. A project involves a large number of people. Very often when I assess the crew I work with and realize that it won’t be possible «to grow up the tree», I reject the offer, because I understand that I’m not able to do the most important thing in this context. Sometimes things go wrong, but it is not bad. Returning to «20 cigarettes», remember that for the main character everything turned out just the way he wanted: he corrected everything, achieved everything, but he had lost something very important. That is why sometimes it is important not succeed in something rather than get what one wants but at the same time to save oneself, which gives one the right to say «I’m alive».

An actor is like a mirror. His craft is not easy and he says:«Pay me and I will show yourselves in a way you’ve never seen yourselves. That’s the way you look, something you are used to, and that’s the way you look from the inside. Scared?!” This look from the inside has a marvellous therapeutic effect on a person – at least one can stop for a while and start to think: “Is that really what I have in myself?» Acting is an intermediate mission, and true art always leads to faith.

One can’t possibly forget the monologue of one of the characters, Andrey’s boss played by Mazim Sukhanov abot the queen bee of which he speaks in the tiolet. It’s a horror. A geniously complied horrror.

Maxim is a surprisingly flexible actor, he transformed his image in action, in ccordance with what was going on on the film-grounds and with what was the character like. We spoke the same language, we talked about the same thing. He created an image of a horrible person, who signed an agreement with another boss and openly demonstrated his own choice doing it gently and diplomatically at the same time. Noone can claim he can speak with the daemons and persuade them better. He acts as the representative of the dark side, showing Andrey the new way and promising him all the goods. While watching this film I felt as if Maxim managed to play at the highest level: he played the person, who knows and remembers how serious this choice is. Inspite of the fact he stands on the other side of the borderline between the good and the evil, one can make out the man who misses the light badly. He showed a living soul, aiming at light, in a person, who is practically dead. This creates a marvellous effect. He plays the representative of the Evil One, but at the same time he still has soul, and one can see what kind of person was this Emmanuil Petrovich before he had made his choice. Maxim showed understanding of fear before the choice and of impossibility to change this decision. That is why his charater pulls the poor advertizer to the edge with such a cat’s diplomacy and carefullness, leads him but still feels sorry for him. Maxim perfectly managed to combine such incombinable things in this role: sorrow for the one he used to be and for the impossibility to turn it all back.

The City is another character of the film, establishing new laws for the new time, presupposing the action site of the main character.

Moscow is the city of everlasting growth. It is a strong current one eagerly goes into, gets into the water swirls and swims very seldom fighting the current but more often drowns. The only thing one can do is to rise upon this current and to see this valley at last, to notice all the small and big houses on it. Its important to realize that it is just the ground – a tiny spot on the planet with the flowing dusty current of steel, stone and concrete. There is only one way: to rise up, to see the truth with your spirit and to find freedom. Otherwise the city will kill you. It seems like the image of the city in “20 cigarettes” manipulates the main characters, it becomes impossible to understand who grows up whom: people build the megapolis or it brings up the people belonging to it and dictates its laws to them.

Of course, Moscow is a loved city. But it changes so rapidly that the charm of the film «I walk, I Stroll Moscow» remains only in the most remote corners of the city. From time to time I go to some old known yard to stay there for a while and to feel this beloved warm-yelowish light of the city.

From Andrey’s point of view how would you advertize your film «20 cigarettes»? What slogans would you use?

If I were Andrey, I would have the billboard run: «One has alreasy fallen. You are next to go.» In our world of vanity and pride, people will naturally react: «I am the next? How did he fell? Where to?» I’m sure thousands will swallow this hook. «20 cigarettes» is a multi-word quotation, a warning. I think, it will be heard.