Let's start with how this adventure began.
Over ten years have gone by since the day in which I inexplicably left for
the border between Russia and The Ukraine to follow an extraordinary news
report: a language and literature teacher in Russia, a model Communist,
nicknamed the "Monster of Rostov" had killed and eaten over 50
children in 12 years. I thought I was going there to make a movie, but I
realized that the timing wasn't right - it would've been a bad film. Plus it
wouldn't have expressed what I had gone there to learn.
I suddenly understood that I had gone to Rostov for a very simple reason. I had
identified with that communist intellectual who had lost his sense of
identity and become a frightened animal ready to eat people in order to survive. I found his story incredible and it appeared
to be one of the best ways to describe the end of communism. I also
wanted to point out the way adults tormented children in a historical
period just like the one we are going through now, when there is a sense of
uncertainty in the future. I would have never imagined that violence toward children
would have reached the level it has today in every corner of the planet.
Therefore I wrote a novel entitled "The Communist Who
Ate Children", which was a great success and translated into many languages.
From that moment on I began to think of a movie. Many producers in Europe and
the United States offered to buy the rights, but I never accepted. I didn't want
"The Communist Who Ate Children" to
become one of the usual serial thrill killers. I wanted it to be a movie about the end of communism and
the denial of rights to childhood - on
the erasing of personality. But nobody would guarantee that so I realized I
would have to do it on my own.
What kind of relationship is there between the novel "The Communist Who Ate Children", the movie "Evilenko" and the true story of the "Monster of Rostov" Andrej Romanovic Cikatilo?
The true story inspired me because Andrej Romanovic Cikatilo, the "Monster of Rostov" is an intellectual and a communist. The paradox of
a monstrosity in such a well read man attracted me in an irresistible
way. The novel and the movie are fictitious, but they contain elements of
reality. I researched a great deal on Cikatilo and maybe I
know him far better than some of the judges that condemned him. My Andrej
Romanovic Evilenko is a fictitious character, just as the other protagonists of
the movie starting with the magistrate detective Vadim Timurovic
Lesiev and the Jewish psychiatrist Aron Richter.
Can you explain the choice of the title of the novel " The Communist Who
Ate Children"?
It was the first title that came to mind. Maybe because the slogan "Communists Eat Children" had obsessed me during childhood. I attended an upper middle class foreign school and because I was the child of a historic family of Italian communism, my class mates would constantly ask me: "How can you be a communist? Communists eat children. Don't they?". And I would always answer: "Of course, come here and I'll eat you too." I do believe cruelty is a common factor in eastern European culture, with or without communism. Communism began as an antidote to the cruelty, but it was a repressive antidote. That is why I believe that once the cork popped the repressed cruelly exploded everywhere in such a monstrous way.
You insist on the protagonist's mental illness. Are you sure the Monster of Rostov was mentally ill?
He was totally insane. I also wonder how insane could society be in order not to have noticed. I think I describe the man exactly the way I saw him and how I perceived him without any additions. Andrej appeared to me as a "bad boy". That is why I had such contrasting feelings for him: fear, tenderness, compassion and disgust.
Andrej Romanovic Cikatilo was considered sane and condemned to death sentence. Why would his judges not have noticed his folly. And what is the connection between this insanity and the end of communism?
It is well known that after the October Revolution in Russia that psychiatry, psychoanalysis and any other scientific disciplines destined to analyze and cure mental illnesses were abolished. Freud was also no longer published. This happened because it was necessary to obey only the psychiatry of the State. The State psychiatry in the USSR was given only by the prison institution. Mental institutions were only used for political dissidents. In the meantime, this is what I believe, mental illnesses went out of control and gave birth to monsters. All illness, and mental illness in particular are "alive", they have a life of their own, an evolution that is connected to the evolution of humanity. Not long ago psychosomatics were considered a fantasy. Today, nobody can deny their existence. Otherwise it would be impossible to explain the great success of homeopathic medicine. When humanity doesn't take an illness into consideration, doesn't analyze or fight it, the illness is free to develop and it becomes strong and dangerous. One example is AIDS. There is a theory that HIV has always existed and that in the past it was harmless and we underestimated it.
In the last pages of your novel and in the last segments of the movie it
seems as if you believe that Evilenko could still be alive and
that the real Cikatilo could be alive as
well.
I believe so. I know that many may consider me insane, but I am sure of what
I say. Andrej Romanovic Cikatilo was considered sane and sentenced to
death in October 1992. In the autumn of 1993 his lawyer managed to obtain permission
for another psychiatric test. In Christmas 1993 "Der Spiegel"
published the following: two research institutes, one in Europe and the other in
the states, offered a considerable amount of money to keep Cikatilo alive. On February 14, 1994 Cikatilo
was executed before his second trial takes place.
Reuter's announcement was very cryptic: "Andrej Romanovic Cikatilo was
executed this morning at 7:30 am in Novocerkassk". No pictures, no comments,
nothing. Novocerkassk is a town with four houses. The next day they printed a
correction. The
execution had taken place in Rostov and not Novocerkassk. The only prison where
executions take place is in Moscow. One last detail. I met the mayor of
Moscow in 1995 and I told him I believed that Cikatilo had been sold and not
killed. He answered, "That is what the people of Moscow think".
Why would someone want to buy him?
I will answer with the words of one of my characters Aron Richter, "Because he was an exceptional being." This man had characteristics that were special compared to other serial killers. He hypnotized his victims and forced them to follow him where he then would kill them. He chose children and because they were more fragile. He didn't even take them by the hand, instead he would walk ahead and they would follow. Cikatilo killed five people in three years in the same wood strip - a small group of trees close to an airporrt. After the first two crimes the wood strip was always under surveillance. Some believe that the police officers were also hypnotized and saw the crimes, but that was never proven. Cikatilo, once he was arrested, brought the authorities to the murder sites and pointed out exactly where the bodies were, their names, and their clothing. Afterwards the authorities would dig and they would find exactly what he had described. Sometimes there were only skeletons, but the clothing, their books and other objects were there. Cikatilo's son is also a serial killer which is the first case of a serial killer who is the son of a serial killer.
Cikatilo's son? But Evilenko doesn't have children in the movie and in the novel.
Evilenko doesn't have children by choice because I didn't know how to handle them from a narrative and dramatic point of view. Cikatilo had two children, a boy and a girl who didn't grow up with him. Before the trial, his wife and children were taken from Rostov. His wife had always protected him and the question is how could a mother allow a man to commit these crimes? There is no answer. Some mothers don't react to their husbands raping their children. Cikatilo's family had their names changed and were moved to a new home. In 1997 a Moscow police officer stopped beside a van and sees a man is eating the driver. While checking his documents the handcuffed man said, "That isn't me, I am Andrej Romanovic Cikatilo's son and I am finishing my father's mission." He had killed 22 middle aged people.
Cannibalism appears often in our society. Why?
Like many experiences of the past cannibalism is still inside of us. Mental illness brings us back to the darkness of the past. Obviously it is a rare behavior. The harm we do to others is often a punishment to ourselves which is the main topic of the film.
You were a scriptwriter before becoming a novelist and then a director. Can you explain the evolution?
I was so accustomed to film writing that I wrote the Cikatilo book as if it were a movie. I eliminated everything that you weren't able to see or hear and that's why the book is short. I believe a real novelist would have written five or six hundred pages. In the film Cikatilo's thoughts are expressed by Angelo Badalamenti's extraordinary music.
This is your first movie as a director. You are 52 years old, the language is English and it was shot in The Ukraine. That's an unusual beginning.
I wanted to be a director since I was 18 and I assisted Bernardo Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini. When I became a journalist, scriptwriter and producer, I stopped thinking about directing. I made this movie because I didn't want to sell the rights to my novel and I realized it was up to me. I am old to be a beginner and so is the producer Mario Cotone who put all his courage and professionalism into this project. But Mario Cotone is the greatest executive producer in Italy. He did "Once upon a time in America", "The Last Emperor", "Little Buddha", "Stealing Beauty", "Life is beautiful" and "Pinocchio" by Benigni. I think no other European producer has a résumé like his.
Did you feel out of place behind the camera?
Not at all. I followed my instincts by focusing on the acting. I believe that every director, young or old, reproduces the movies they love most. I've loved movies my entire life so it wasn't difficult.
Lets talk about your choice of actors, Malcolm McDowell for instance.
Malcolm and I have been friends for a long time and have spoken about this project for years. On the set Malcolm looked exactly like Evilenko - possessed. His acting is authentic and I hope he receives an award for his role. Malcolm is one of the all-time greatest actors and it is insane that he has never won an Oscar.
The other protagonist, Marton Csokas.
A stroke of luck. Marton Csokas is an extraordinarily sensitive actor that you will soon be hearing more of. Besides Evilenko, he also appears in Asylum directed by David McKenzie. Marton understood the script more than anyone. He is from New Zeeland, but his father is a Hungarian that fled from the communist regime. His role was very difficult because he was never passive. Vadim is the spectator who falls deeply into the mental illness of this monster and manages to stop him.
All the other actors are Russian, English and Ukrainian. No Italians?
I had the privilege of exceptional actors like Ronald Pickup ("Mission"), Frances Barber ("My Beautiful Laudrette"), John Benfield ("In the name of the Father"), Vernon Dobcheff ("La bisbetica domata"), and the Russian actors all come from a great acting tradition. The only Italian actors are my children Giaime and Manuel, my nephew and niece Camilla and Francesco, and my assistant Fabrizio Castellani. I brought the children because Russians and Ukrainians told me that I would never find parents willing to let their children work in a film like this, but everything worked out. People understood that I had no misgivings on the topic.
The crew is Italian.
Yes. An Italian crew is what makes our movies so special. DOP Fabio Zamarion ("Respiro" by Crialese) is already as good as his maestro Vittorio Storaro, art director Nello Giorgetti, make up artist Alessandro Bertolazzi and hairdresser Massimo Gattabrusi "created" the faces of the protagonists. especially Evilenko, without having to use special effects.
Translation © 2004-08 by Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net