Dinner with Kachalka

Interview with Gar O’Rourke, director of Kachalka

How did you go about creating Kachalka?  Can you talk us through the filming processes a little?
I live in Ireland as does the producer of the film and as such this film was made in a kind of ‘remote’ way. The film was made over three separate visits to Kiev over a one-and-a-half-year period. The first two visits to Kiev were to recce the site and get to meet some of the gym goers. This was done in winter months so we still did not really what the gym would be like in the summertime. Thanks to our amazing fixer – Serghiy – we were able to connect with a great array of different people who I felt represented interesting aspects of the gym. These were guys who were working out there in the dead of winter during temperatures of -5 or even -10. On our second trip to Kiev we recorded around 14 hours of audio-only interviews with these guys which were then transcripted to English. Through these interviews an audio bed was edited and crafted, narrative bed that we initially thought would be the backbone to the film. In the end, we ended up scrapping all these interviews and going with only one interview from one person – Petro the caretaker. This was something we didn’t have in the can yet and we would need to get during our third visit, the actual shoot. The film was shot over 4 days in May 2019. We had a limited amount of time to get a lot of things so it was a pretty busy schedule, a large number of shots you see in the film were considered in advance of our shoot in Ukraine. The shoot was a really fun experience if I’m being totally honest. Of course you have stressful moments, terrible sleep at night and worry pretty much non stop but it was a fantastic experience overall. The Kachalka gym goers – of which there were so many during our time of filming as it was now almost summer – were all super nice and interested in the project. Many times we would see someone or something interesting happening and just run over and ask if we could film them, some of my favourite clips from the film happened in this unexpected way. Very few people speak English there so it was all done through our translator and sound recordists.

Can you tell us a bit about the ‘Kachalka’ gym men, et how did you approach them ?
We approached people in two different ways. The first way was through our researcher/fixer Serg would visit the site on our behalf (in winter) and talk to people there. This was done whilst we were still in Ireland. We built up a large bank of information on people who were willing to star in the film, we had a document of around 20+ guys and some girls. We had all types of people willing to be in the film from local film stars to retail managers, students to retired Red Army soldiers. I’ll be honest and say that there may have been some ‘gifts’ of encouragement to get some of the sterner men to participate, gifts like bottles of Irish whiskey and Irish football jerseys. The second way we approached people was during the actual filming. It was kind of a simple process, we would see someone interesting and run over to them and say ‘hey we’re making a film about this gym and we’d love to have you in it!’. Almost all people were happy to be filmed. Some guys, particularly the super strong enormous ones were sometimes a little trickier, they weren’t afraid to ask for some money haha.

What do you hope the audience will get out of it?
Firstly, I hope the audience will enjoy film! After that, I hope the audience get a sense of what is special and unique about this place. There are many lessons I took from my time at Kachalka – such as the importance of using what you have, the importance of community for a better life and the benefits of physical exercise for one’s wellbeing. If people can have a laugh or two as well then I hope the film will have been a worthwhile watch.

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
This is my first film so I can’t compare it to making feature films but I did feel a lot of freedom throughout the process. The film was funded through Screen Ireland, the main body for film in Ireland, and they were very encouraging to try something artistic and original – perhaps because they are not looking for a commercially successful product.

What do you consider your cinematographic references?
This is going to sound a bit lofty but Stanley Kubrick was the main visual reference for this film. I felt that this film deserved a strong visual style because Kachalka is such an incredibly visual place. I wanted the cinematography in this film to capture a feeling of power and strength. The inspiration to go with a lot of locked-off symmetrically positioned shots, slow zooms and steady cam – all came from the machinery that exists at the site. The whole gym was made as a result of repurposed machinery taken from the Soviet era. The gym equipment is made from powerful and precisely made machines that have a very mechanical movement to them. What I love about Stanley Kubrick’s visual techniques (and is the reason he was the main references) are that his images also have an amazing power and precision to them. There was also some inspiration from old Soviet cinema – many films from this era have this ‘visual power’ which I felt was very appropriate for our subject matter.

Kachalcka is part of International Competition I10.