Interview based on the film "Take Care" by Alisa Plotnikova:

Alisa thank you for doing this interview most of my readers will not know you. A brief introduction.

Alisa Plotnikova is a filmmaker known for exploring the darker aspects of the human psyche.  Alisa fil “Take Care” is about her town of Kaliningrad, Russia local maniac. Her film Take Care delves into crime and mental health, inspired by a real-life maniac. She incorporates acting methods like Stanislavsky and Chekhov, focusing on psychological transformations and the risks actors face in their craft.

Can you explain how the scenes in your film connect to a real-life maniac and the killings that took place in Kaliningrad, Russia?

The body of 11-year-old Daria K. was found on January 14, 2003, by a stream in the area of Lieutenant Katina Street. The child's clothes were neatly folded, the body was lying on the shore, and the head was lowered into the water. According to the forensic experts, the girl was first raped and then drowned.

The news of the terrible crime shocked Kaliningrad. But the townspeople were even more shocked when, three years later, the "nightmare on Katina" happened again. 12-year-old Kristina G. was found on January 30, 2006, just five meters from the scene of the previous crime. And again: the victim's head is in the water, clothes are near the body. This time, the public response seemed to be off the charts. Rumors about an elusive maniac spread across Kaliningrad, and people were outraged by the inability of law enforcement agencies to find a violent rapist and murderer.

So we have a homicidal maniac operating in Kaliningrad in the forest park area in 2003, killing girls.

It's not a good story.

I used a different park area, but no less criminal. A corpse was actually found in the place of the first victim in the video, but a man who tried to rape his stepdaughter there. 

Why did you choose a specific maniac as the inspiration for the character in your film, and how does his appearance relate to the psychological traits you wanted to portray?

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I consider the bright appearance of a Maniac acceptable, not only because it merges with the darkness, but also based on the fact that I happened to know a living maniac from the history of Katina Street - in my life I could not say that a red-bearded, lame, cheerful man who likes to wear a kilt could turn out to be such a terrible maniac, and they also caught him for a long time - After all, a vivid image is also obtained from the description of a real maniac.

How does your maniac’s mindset, which includes a mental deviation and a fetish for yellow, shape his view of the victims in your story?

Schizophrenia

The first data on the perception and attitude to color in patients with schizophrenia were obtained by psychiatrists by observing the color scheme of patients' clothes, as well as their artistic products.

The colors of the patients' clothes gave the impression of either something ridiculous, inadequate and pretentious (often due to the yellow color), or monotony and lack of expressiveness. Similar two color variants were observed in the drawings of patients, which was regarded by a number of psychiatrists as evidence of the absence of any specificity in relation to color, common to all patients with schizophrenia.

The arbitrariness and inadequacy of the use of colors in drawing is, perhaps, what was recognized as common to all patients with schizophrenia. This is indicated, for example, by L. Navratil (1921).

According to P. Hartwich (1971), who carefully measured the area occupied by a particular paint in the drawing, patients preferred to use purple, yellow and white paints when drawing.

It follows that my maniac has schizophrenia and this triggers him to commit his insane actions.

My maniac believes that the victims themselves are to blame for his killing them. Provocation through color.

What do you want audiences to understand about the psychology of those who witnessed the crimes and contacted the police in the film?

 In my opinion, even bystanders in the film should not remain indifferent to such situations.

Since a man understands that if he rushes in, he can hurt himself, or on the contrary become a murderer himself and prove that it was self-defense is problematic, as well as scare off a maniac who has not been caught for a long time, he sends his wife to call the police in a safer place, and he remains to observe who knows where the maniac is going and he will be able to transfer the data through his wife to the police. Shooting a video without a person's consent, even if that person is a criminal, is also legally prohibited. That is, since our family does not relate to law enforcement officers themselves and is very limited in their actions according to the law, they try to help as much as they can.
 

What message are you trying to convey about the risks actors face in their work, particularly through the character who becomes consumed by his role as a maniac?

Regarding the risks, knowing that many actors use the Stanislavsky system to get used to the role, for example, they live like homeless people, come to live in a hospital, a mental hospital and perform similar actions, study various materials to understand the character they need to play or learn some special skills - in fact, they are greatly risking their mental health, to the point of insanity, since there is a high risk of ceasing to distinguish the difference between your self and the self of your character to be played.

How do you balance different acting methods, like Stanislavsky and Chekhov, in your film to explore the preparation actors go through for their roles?

My character prepares for the role in ways similar to those described above: 

1) searches for available information about maniacs in the form of books, films, if possible, interviews those who get caught, keeps records

2) travels to the places where the corpses of the victims of the real maniac were found

3) visits the police station and examines materials and photos of cases related to these crimes, examines evidence found at the crime scene

4) to understand how a maniac feels, he builds himself a secret lair in his own house, in which there are akult objects - images of Baphomet, ritual candles, etc.

5) as a result of the preparation, the actor gradually goes crazy, ceasing to distinguish his character from himself, which leads to a personality disorder

6) the only easily accessible viewer is the character's wife, who turns out to be a victim of the situation, but after her part of the creepy story ends, she is informed that her husband is sick and not a maniac. There are Stanislavsky acting books everywhere at home. She is looking for ways to help her husband not to give up acting, but to learn how to separate his self and his character's self so that her husband can stop - she learns that there is another system - Chekhov's system, which teaches this. 

The husband of the main character, after he is discharged from the hospital, receives a gift of a book of acting skills according to the Chekhov system. He studies the book and learns to stop when he feels that the role is starting to carry him further. He is successfully filming the film and no more such incidents have happened.
 

Can you describe the significance of the objects and settings in your film, such as the real police transport and the specially created sledgehammer, and their role in the story?

 Since we are shooting a movie and it is important to us that there are no accidents on the set, because we take care of our actors to avoid injury, we had to solve the issue of the murder weapon of a maniac - try to create a safe sledgehammer that does not kill or injure anyone, but the appearance remained massive and intimidating - the result of creative thinking led to the fact that we put foam in place of the striker, wrap it with tape, paint it and create the appearance that the sledgehammer is dangerous, although it would seem that the method of murder was chosen rather primitively, but quickly and effectively, since the main character of the story is not a maniac, but an actor who needs to play a role.

Regarding the use of a real police car, it so happened that she got along with a real police dog and the dog handler in the film is really a real police officer who was allowed to star in my film. Since, in addition to the main police and the cynological service, they actually go to crime scenes, it became possible to show how a police dog works, at the same time, based on the fact that this vehicle contains information on where to contact in case of violations against someone, native advertising of the local police appears - a social subtext.

What can viewers expect from future parts of the film, and how does the new direction of the story differ from what we've seen so far?

In my opinion, many viewers have no idea how much the work of actors is actually not easy - for most viewers, actors just make faces on screens and in theaters, but in fact it's quite a lot of work that people have been learning for years.

The real thing or acting is not always possible for an ordinary person to understand. So the wife of the main character doubted at the moment what was happening to her was a game or her husband was really a maniac fetishist.

I think that with the help of my film and the references used in the film, native advertising inside the frames, the viewer will be able to think about many things and reconsider their attitude to one of the film professions, and novice actors will learn that there are many different techniques in preparing for roles, if they Google they will find not only Stanislavsky, Chekhov, but also Chabak and other authors. They will learn to distinguish between the difference in the performance of roles and their presentation.

The film also shows the preservation of family values, overcoming difficulties, the importance of remaining human, Simple safety rules are also included in the story.