RU | 2011 | colour | 81 min
reż|dir Pavel Kostomarov, Aleksander Rastorguev  pro|pro Sergey Melkumov, Aleksander Rodnyanskiy, Non Stop Productions sce|sc Susanna Barandzhiyeva mon|ed Pavel Kostomarov, Aleksander Rastorguev ob|cast Anastasiya Lukashova, Manushak Vartevaryan, Larisa Cherkasova David Surmalyan dys|dis Non Stop Production

This year’s most interesting experiment bordering on truth and fiction is a somewhat collective work, signed by Alexander Rastorguyev and Pavel Kostomarov, Russian directors. The characters in the movie are also its co-creators, as the movie is made almost entirely by them. Kostomarov and Rastorguyev searched for young inhabitants of Rostov upon River Don, who would be willing to record their lives in a natural manner. Three main characters of “I Love You” had been chosen from over 50 people who passed the preliminary casting. Their interrelated stories had been weaved by Kostomarov and Rastorguyev into a mosaic. The directors imposed the script onto a movie material. They also asked their characters for extra scenes, as well as added a funny exhibition. During meeting with the viewers it is not disclosed which scenes are documentary and which are not, as the artistic freedom permits the authors to omit this seemingly negligible aspect of the movie’s artistic and cognitive worth. The outcome is a surprisingly fresh picture of youth in times of YouTube. People living in a big, Russian city are able to find a lot of love in spite of brutal (also linguistically) circumstances and gloom outlook.

DIRECTOR | Alexander Rastorguev (1971)
Born in Rostov-on-Don in 1971. He graduated from St-Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy in 1998 and worked as TV director and theater dramatist. 

DIRECTOR | Pavel Kostomarov (1975)
Born in Moscow. He graduated from VGIK Cinematography Faculty in 2002 and worked as cinematographer for various films, such as Tender’s Hit: Wild, Wild Beach by Alexander Rastorguev. In 2010 he was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for best cinematography for Alexey Popogrebsky’s How I Ended This Summer. He also directed three documentaries.