Left the network: the comedy "Darling, I won't call you back" was shown in Moscow
The last film by Evgenia Dobrovolskaya
Moscow is preparing to welcome spring, and cinema announcements are increasingly flashing family, romantic, adventure, but comedies. However, director Alexander Fomin suggests celebrating March by humorously reflecting on two eternal questions: about the place in this world and life after death. Symbolically, despite the active rumors about the imminent demolition of the October cinema, this place is still the epicenter of the capital's culture: the most anticipated film premieres start from here, and the whole secular Moscow continues to come out on their red carpet. The first screening of the comedy "Darling, I won't call you Back" was just as lively.
Actor Nikita Efremov, who played the main role
The main character of the film is a young Moscow advertiser, Danya, who suffers from delayed life syndrome. The main role was played by Nikita Yefremov. His Danya works without sleep and rest, trying to do everything. However, this does not bring him happiness: something constantly prevents him from truly living here and now. Suddenly, Danya falls into a coma and finds himself in the hallway of the afterlife, which suspiciously resembles the airport from his latest advertisement. There are only two flights — either to hell or to heaven, but Dania does not give up hope of finding another door — back to the world of the living, but for now she spends her time in a local bar called "Darling, I won't call you back."
— Almost all young people now either sacrifice the present moment for the sake of a future career or some other things and do not appreciate the moment in which they live now. In general, the main tenet of Buddhism is to live in the here and now, without postponing your life for later. Then it may not come," Dmitry Litvinov, the film's general producer, told Izvestia. — But we presented it in an easy manner, without any psychological intricacies. There are quite clear concepts here that viewers will understand and find themselves or their loved ones in these characters. They'll think that maybe it's worth learning to appreciate the moment.
In an interview with Izvestia, director and screenwriter Alexander Fomin said that he was prompted to create the film by sad events from his own life.
— My beloved grandmother, who raised me, like the main character, had a brain aneurysm and was in a coma. Unfortunately, she was gone. This became the starting point when I thought about life, death, the current moment and what awaits us somewhere out there," said the director. His new painting is dedicated to grandmothers and mothers.
The premiere itself began with the same touching and no less sad note. "Darling, I won't call You Back" was the last film by actress Evgenia Dobrovolskaya, who died in January 2025. In the new film, she played the mother of the main character.
— Evgenia was a great professional, she fit in perfectly with our team and worked 100% all the shifts that she had, — said the director. The creators and the audience honored the memory of the actress with a minute of silence.
Dialogue about life and death
Despite the fact that all the events of the film take place in a fictional world, there is still quite a lot from the personal life of the director and screenwriter in the film. The name of the fictional bar refers to the name of a real drinking establishment, much loved by the director in his youth. The infernal airport where the main character ends up is also not accidental. The aerophobia of Efremov's hero is a personal ailment of the director.
— Therefore, for me, the afterlife is represented in the form of an airport: on the one hand, I really like to travel, on the other hand, I am very afraid to fly on an airplane. The afterlife is the same: on the one hand, it is a journey where something exciting can await us. On the other hand, it's very scary," Fomin said.
The director came to the premiere in the same clothes as the one in which Nikita Efremov's character walks in the film. However, the director's T-shirt is decorated with a portrait of the performer of the main role. Fomin admitted to Izvestia that he was a big fan of Nikita Efremov and had only seen him in the lead role. The artist himself, presenting the picture, said that despite the rather existential theme, there was a relaxed and light atmosphere on the set. The cast of actors in the person of Mila Ershova, Dmitry Chebotarev, Agatha Mutseniece, Jan Tsapnik, Valentina Lyapina, Angelina Pakhomova and Evgeny Schwartz were saved from depressing thoughts by memes. The project's team has developed, among other things, because many actors have already worked with Fomin on other projects.
Efremov is one of the few artists who is not afraid to talk openly about anxiety, psychology and his experience in therapy. He is also known for sorting out some of his roles with a psychologist. Although, as the actor adds, GPT chats are already helping with this. In March, the actor will release another project dealing with the topic of life and death — this is the series "Chemistry between us".
— It seems to me that I have a request for this. And anyway, we have a lot of interesting things going on right now. It's time to reflect," Yefremov said.
The film was shot in sets built at Mosfilm. At the same time, advanced technologies of shooting on LED screens were used to create fantastic otherworldly worlds. The project was helped by the virtual production studio XOVP, which worked, in particular, on the military drama "Air" by Alexei German Jr.
— If we had done all this on schedule, this movie would have cost much more. We used the latest modern technologies and created the worlds that the audience will see in the film. These worlds are woven from the main character's memories. Because he loved art very much, they look very much like Van Gogh's paintings," said Dmitry Litvinov, general producer.
A shot from the movie "Darling, I won't call you back"
"Darling, I won't call you back" has become a new part of Alexander Fomin's conditional ironic trilogy about the crisis of 30-year-olds. The director also confirmed this idea to Izvestia. Before that, the director released the comedies "Young Man" and "In bars." According to him, all these scripts were written at the same time — in 2018–2019 — and partly tell about the millennial generation, but from different angles. "The Young Man" is dedicated to the search for a life path, "In bars" is dedicated to friendship. In "Darling, I won't call you back", the director continues the dialogue, but this time about life and death, the present and the future. The audience will find out how it turned out very soon: the film will be released on big screens on March 6.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
