How was the shooting of the film "Dislike"

The drama of the Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev "Dislike" was nominated for an Oscar in the category "Best Film". This is not the first major prize that the tape will compete for. At the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, this profound picture about scenes of married life was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

The film was shot in Moscow and the Moscow region. Filming was supposed to be completed in the fall of 2016, but early snow interfered with the plans. In order to finish the necessary scenes, the film crew had to wait for the spring of 2017. During this time, Zvyagintsev for the first time in his career began editing an unfinished film.

The South Tushino district in the north-west of Moscow was chosen as the location of the film. There were filmed: a school (exterior and interior), the house of the main characters of the Sleptsovs, parking in front of the house, the streets adjacent to it, a grocery store, a bus stop, as well as a natural monument — the Skhodnensky bucket, the same ravine in the lower reaches of which the boy walks along the banks of the river after finishing lessons. This river is called the Gangway. In it, the group has repeatedly observed the everyday life of the beaver family.

All the decorations of the apartments were at a height of two and a half to three meters relative to the floor of the pavilion, which allowed the camera, being close enough to the windows, to "not see" the floor. Tree trunks and branches were installed outside the windows of the scenery. During the filming, the branches were set in motion with the help of a special system of cables by employees of the art department. Thanks to this, the trees "swayed in the wind", which made the scenery realistic.

A few weeks before the start of filming, Mariana Spivak registered a special profile on Instagram on behalf of her heroine Zhenya Sleptsova and methodically filled it with photos that can be seen on the mobile phone screen in the scene of the first night conversation between Zhenya and Boris.

The abnormally early snow that fell in Moscow on October 27, 2016, made significant adjustments both to the artistic image and to the production of the painting. Snow, which according to the original plan appeared only in the epilogue, penetrated into other episodes of the film.

In search of a boy for the role of Alyosha Sleptsov, more than 250 children from Moscow and St. Petersburg were screened. The interview and a sample of one of the scenes with each of them was conducted by the casting director of the project Elina Ternyaeva. As a result, seven "finalists" were selected, who had to audition with the director. Among them were Matvey Novikov, who eventually played Alyosha, and Artem Zhigulin, who played the role of Alyosha's friend and classmate — Kuznetsov. It is noteworthy that the boys are friends in life and have previously been filmed together.

The prototype of the search and rescue team "Vera", involved in the search for the missing Alyosha Sleptsov, became a real-life PSO "Lisa Alert" in Russia. However, due to the ambiguity of the plot, the authors of the film decided not to use the name and logo of the PSO "Lisa Alert" in the picture.

"Dislike" is the first full—length film by Andrey Zvyagintsev, shot with digital cameras (ARRI Alexa XT and Alexa Mini). Anamorphic optics Cooke Anamorphic/i was used in the shooting.

April 10 is the last date when the authors of the film could send it to the selection committee of the Cannes Film Festival. Only on April 5, filming officially ended. In a few days, the freshly filmed spring scenes were pasted into the finished autumn episodes — on April 9, the film was ready. On the morning of April 10, the producer took the film to Paris for the Cannes selectors. On April 13, the festival director Thierry Fremaux began the announcement of the main competition program with Zvyagintsev's film, announcing a new round of modern Russian cinema.

The film was shot without the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Cinema Fund and other sources of state funding. The film was created with the participation of the European film fund Eurimages, French and German studios, the Dardenne brothers film company and philanthropist Gleb Fetisov.