"Innocent Saturday" was presented at the main competition of Berlin International Film Festival - Кинокомпания "Пассажир"
This is what happens in the film. Valery, an insignificant young Communist Party trainer, accidentally finds out what happened during the night. Driven by fear, he grabs Vera, the girl who means the most to him, and tries to escape with her. But the heel of her shoe breaks before they're able to reach the station. Of course she needs a new pair of shoes, right away. OK, only the shoes, and then they're off. By car, on foot, no matter - the main thing is that they've got to flee. But now she needs her passport, which she left as security with her musician friends at a hotel. So now Valery runs into his old friends, in whose band he played percussion for several years. There are still lots of scores to be settled: who betrayed whom, who saved whom... There's jealousy, alcohol... In the end, Valery ends up traveling to the very heart of the catastrophe instead of away from it, literally in the same boat as Vera and his pals.
I don't know if it's because of the Russian mentality... I think it's a feeling that people have everywhere. A general feeling that's easier for us to understand because our history has helped us to cope with critical situations. When I met with Anton Shagin after he read the script, he told me: I'm not sure that I can do it. I have to find special buttons to press within me. This statement motivated me. I find him totally different in our film than how we know him otherwise on screen. Anton is a great Russian actor I don't know anyone I could compare him with. Valery Kabysh, Anton's character, cannot stop life, since it's stronger than death. That's why this story is positive, despite the dramatic circumstances.