10 Directors to Watch
Anna Melikyan
Daily Variety
January 16, 2008
By Matthew Ross
Sometimes a wild imagination can get a young filmmaker into
trouble. For Anna Melikyan it seems to be her magic elixir.
With "Rusalka" (Mermaid), the 32-year-old helmer shows off an
astonishing combination of creative ingenuity and technical
expertise. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fable
"The Little Mermaid" but set in modern-day Russia, pic tells the story
of a girl named Alisa who is both blessed and cursed with a special
gift: She has the power to make wishes come true.
"Mermaid" does what every great fairy tale should do: transport its
audience to another place. As Alisa journeys from the run-down seaside
community of her childhood to Moscow, every frame seems to pulsate
with relentless visual inventiveness and a mischievous comic
tone. "Humor is my main instrument," Melikyan says. "I think that to
understand a subject completely, you should find something funny about
it."
Born in Azerbaijan and raised in Armenia, Melikyan moved to Moscow to
attend film school. After graduating, she honed her skills directing
fiction and nonfiction television before making her first feature,
"Mars," in 2004.
She found the inspiration for "Mermaid" in the form of actress Masha
Shalaeva, whom she’d known since college. "All these years, I’ve
wanted to make a movie with her in the lead, but there wasn’t a good
story," Melikyan explains. "And suddenly it came to me — ‘Mermaid’
would be for Masha. I could only see her in this role. The script was
very easy to write, because I wasn’t thinking about an abstract image,
but a specific person — her face, voice and attitude."
"Mermaid" makes its international premiere in Sundance’s World Cinema
Dramatic Competition program.
"The uniqueness of Anna as a filmmaker is that her films are without
national boundaries," says "Mermaid" producer Ruben
Dishdishyan. "(‘Mermaid’) is understandable and accessible to any
human being in any part of our planet."
VITAL STATS
AGE: 32
PROVENANCE: Baku, Azerbaijan
INSPIRED BY: "Italian films, especially neorealism, but Fellini
remains my favorite film director."
REPS: Film’s sales agent is Central Partnership