Svetlana Khodchenkova, AKA Wolverine's Viper, stars in Russian cult deprogramming drama, The Sect

Out now with Foo Fighters and our 50 New Irish Acts You Have To Hear sharing the flip cover, the new issue of Hot Press includes an in-depth interview with Walter Iuzzolino, the man responsible for bringing you a veritable United Nations of TV courtesy of the Walter Presents strand of channel4.com.

In amidst all the Scandi crime, Senegalese buddy cop, Italian mafia, Brazilian porn industry and German Cold War shows, you’ll find The Sect, a Russian drama about a psychotherapist who forcibly deprogrammes cult members.

“I’d been looking for a glossy, gripping, contemporary Russian series for some time,” Walter reflects, “and this one has absolutely been worth the wait. The Sect is a beautiful, haunting psychological thriller with an original story and a bold cinematic approach. Unflinchingly honest, at times brutal with a distinct uncompromising Russian flavour, this is an exciting first foray for Walter Presents into a previously untapped region.”

Walter, as usual, is spot-on with the fine ensemble cast, which includes Wolverine’s Svetlana Khodchenkova, making sure the tension grows and grows – and then grows some more. It’s directed by Géla Babluani, the French-Georgian son of Temur Babluani who was one of the former Soviet Union’s most celebrated filmmakers.

“The story’s set in St. Petersburg, so we did all the exterior shots there and the rest in Moscow over the course of two years if you include the pilot,” Géla informs us from lockdown Georgia. “I normally live between France and the US so I wasn’t really familiar with Russian TV and how in recent years it’s started to become really creative. I was a bit surprised when the idea of the show was offered to me, but as soon as I heard the storyline I wanted to do it.”

Religion is a highly contentious issue in Russia with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Scientology banned and a licensing system for faiths other than the Russian Orthodox Church, which enjoys a symbiotic relationship with Putin. With TV there still heavily censored, did Géla have to tread carefully?

“When you think about it, a cult is a sort of state within a state,” he proffers. “You’ve the guy making the rules whose power is absolute and everyone else following him, no questions asked. The show’s reflective of what’s happening in wider (Russian) society but, no, we made it exactly the way we wanted to.”

Before shooting commenced in 2017, Géla made sure to do his research.

“I don’t know many documentaries I watched, but it was a lot,” he laughs. “I also met a lot of people who’d been in cults and escaped; their stories were different but also the same. It’s those combined experiences that you see in The Sect.”

Did he have previous knowledge of Svetlana Khodchenkova who’s a household name in Russia?

“No, I came in as a complete outsider. She’d been Viper in Wolverine and also appeared in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, so I knew she was a big deal. I assumed the guy who plays the doctor was a massive star because he’s so good but he’s only moderately famous in Russia. I guess a country that size is going to have a lot of talented actors.”

Does Géla have early memories of his father making films?

“Yes, I was often on the set during the four years it took him to make The Sun Of The Sleepless, which won a big award at the Berlin International Film Festival,” he recalls. “Back then, I hated it because it was such a slow process with what seemed like nothing much happening for hours on end. It was too much work for what you get out of it but at some point I changed my mind.”

We’re glad he did! Temur Babluaini’s award-winning rubbed off on his son whose first full-length feature, A Fleur de Peau, won a Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Festival.

“I did it with my friends and family,” he smiles. “No one was interested in funding it at first, so the first hour and fifteen minutes were shot and edited with money I’d got from doing commercial work. Then we got the finance, so it was a great experience in terms of finding ways around problems.

“I shouldn’t admit this, but before getting nominated I didn’t even know what Sundance was. It was only when I phoned an American friend of mine who I’d met in Paris that I realised how big a deal it was. I’d never been in the US and met those kinds of agents and producers before, so it was an incredible experience.”

Géla was twelve when in 1991 Georgia gained independence from the Soviets. Sadly, things were to get worse before they got better.

“That was a very intense period,” he reflects. “I’d grown up in the Soviet Union and suddenly on the back of perestroika this national movement started wanting independence. We were fighting for freedom and it was all going to be wonderful. I didn’t fully understand what it meant, but I knew it was important.

“Georgia had always had a strong cultural identity – our cinema, for instance, managed to remain separate from Soviet cinema – but when you haven’t governed yourself for sixty years it’s not easy and in 1993 there was a civil war. Thankfully we got through that and, unlike my father who had to go to Moscow to get the permissions and money for his films, I can travel from country to country doing whatever project I like.”

Read our interview with Walter at https://www.hotpress.com/culture/walter-iuzzolino-on-his-walter-presents-series-and-the-benefits-of-foreign-tv-22840602