浴火鸟

可能对世界总是充满期待的 总觉得会有解决的办法去平衡忽略了爱 真爱是永恒的 却做不到让事物保持平衡最后知道是真实事件改编更欲哭无泪了可能真正的离开才会让有心之人更留念更痛苦相爱的人啊 为什么总会被分开 为什么被现实拉扯（当你拍照时 有什么东西瞬间销声匿迹永远不会重现的瞬间 像鬼魂离开这世界）

1970年的苏联对于同性中的感情是禁止且规定了相关刑法。

纵而使两个相爱的人被世俗狠狠地压在了深不见底的黑暗中。

“黑色的玫瑰和荆棘，微笑与泪水，它们种在一起，互相缠绕。

” 片头的一句旁白，交待了这份复杂而注定没有结果的感情。

“一个永远不会出现的时刻，犹如一个逃避世界的幽灵……” 谢尔盖得知罗曼的婚礼后，他不知道该如何处理这段感情 ，他最后的挣扎，罗曼的一句她怀孕了，使谢尔盖崩溃……唯一的选择是逃离与忘却“so hard ”这段感情，我努力尝试过忘却它………他们在契索的那段画面，让观众沉迷于其中，谢尔盖的爱胜过了罗曼对他的伤害，两人无忧无虑的样子却始终逃脱不了现实。

圣诞节那天，路易莎的到来，使一切烟消云散，谢尔盖独自出门，买了一颗圣诞树。

当路易莎到来时，他见证了罗曼的生活：活泼可爱的孩子，相爱的夫妻，一个幸福洋溢的家庭，与自己相比呢？

又能算什么。

当路易莎问：“谢尔盖，你有没有遇到生命中特别的人？

” “罗曼……还有你。

”谢尔盖的话亦真亦假，他知道，他们之间的爱是不见天日。

最终，谢尔盖选择了逃避，为了罗曼，也为了所有人。

“罗曼，我们之间的爱，只能存在于没有时间与思想的地方，你不该再来找我了………” 再次回来时，谢尔盖收到了罗曼离开时的信：“谢尔盖，我没什么可考虑的，我不会再次伤害我爱的人，不会再分裂自己，去属于每个人……” “谢尔盖，说和做，思考和生活，是不同的………”“谢尔盖，我选择了让我自由的地方，是天空，Forget me，我将永远和你在一起。

” 画面的接近尾声时，谢尔盖走到了他们曾经游泳的地方，此时，已经一片冰凉……如同他们之间的爱，无论过程多么热烈，结果都会凄凉。

仅仅是因为人们眼中的世俗与规矩。

“love is love”爱亦是爱，谢尔盖对路易莎说：“我们之间的爱不逊于你的爱”。

尾声时，谢尔盖，身处于剧院中心，而舞台上的戏剧，正是当年罗曼带他观赏的第一部戏剧“火鸟” 罗曼站在谢尔盖身旁，慢慢的离去。

犹如他从没来过谢尔盖的世界，或是说，这段感情从来没有存在过…… 如开头一样，它是不见天日的…… 如果没有现实生活中老年谢尔盖的叙述《A Tale About Roman》关于罗曼，我们也许永远不会知道这个发生于1970年代两个苏联军人的爱情。

爱亦是爱，它胜过了一切，无论是同性还是异性，它们都存在，是不可抹去的。

太难受了，太难受了，何以想象是由真实故事改编，看完心里好难受。

片尾说13年Russia又颁布法律禁止homosexual propaganda，😫。

Luisa悲惨，失去爱人受尽欺骗；Sergey也悲惨，断断续续的往来，最后只是一纸信的告别；Roman也悲惨，大环境的网紧束着他，做出了选择，又与Sergey藕断丝连，内心分裂又迷茫，最终不复不再。

片尾说真实的Sergey逝世于2017年，在天堂里，他俩还会相遇吗。

真正的Luisa现在又怎样呢？

他们的孩子怎么样了呢？

片尾字幕演员表滚动完了，又出现那个当初来Roman住处检查、Sergey藏起来的长官，他吸了口烟，有什么寓意吗？

求热心豆友解答。

太难受了，但是是一部佳作，个人觉得甚至要比cmbyn的后劲还要大，加分项是Roman的颜和身材太好看，Sergey也是。

补充一点，其实想给4.5星，因为片中一些地方不自然，有些片段剪辑得让人难以琢磨。

啊啊啊感觉好的同影总与be沾点边，年纪大了都不敢看啊（这个还是我拖了一年才看的，烈焰焚币还不敢看😭）相信前路光明。

如果你有幸在简短的一生中遇到真爱，你会发现真爱是永远不会忘记的人。

毫无疑问，谢尔盖是罗曼的真爱，之所以选择不了妻子儿子和谢尔盖任何一方，是因为对真爱撒谎的人会迷失自我，他已经没办法选择哪一边了，无论站在哪边，他都会受到伤害，会伤害爱他的人他爱他吗？

爱的，爱到无法自拔，爱到只要留在妻子身边就会痛苦万分。

正如最后给谢尔盖的信中说的，说话和做事，思考和生活，是完全不一样，他无法分裂自己，最终只会选择天空。

喜欢firebird这部电影。

好可惜据说放映前泄露片段，这部电影一点也不卖座，但是演员颜值演技和剧情让人难以忘怀，还是根据真事改编的。

这个片两个人在一起的时候虽然充满了禁忌危险但心动指数💯，前面多甜后面分开就有多让人心碎💔虐死了。

不敢看第二遍，第一次看就哭了2次真的是😭🐦二等兵Private Surgey在离开枯燥的服役基地前遇到了前来支援的飞行员中尉 Comrade Roman，Roman发现Surgey也懂拍照就大方送了胶卷给他，之后就有了在冲印暗房里的暧昧洗照片，哈哈我也是服了，一开始主动的是Roman，后来屈于事业世俗的也是他（但是I totally understand him）在树林里Roman主动亲了大为震惊的Surgey,但Surgey很快就回应了他，我暗恋的人也喜欢我[抱一抱]然后天降小雨，他们一起笑的样子太美好了🐦Roman找到看不下去他和Lucia坐在一起看大电影，独自去教室排练戏剧的Surgey,关灯后要亲他，这个情节好会，虽然见不得光在黑暗中也要吻你。

被车灯照亮后马上分开Let's go游进大海里才能掩人耳目在一起，这牵动我心的情节🥰🐦我发誓这是我活到现在最痛恨KGB的一次，我想把那个恶心的中尉碎尸万段，虽然他的上级也知道相恋，可能因为惜才没有说破，但是这个中尉还出现在片尾彩蛋里，我真希望有一个第二集是讲他把Roman关了起来，假死。

这世上有什么是资本做不到的呢？

🐦Roman的第一次退缩，被匿名信吓到了拒Surgey百米之外，在飞行任务中不得不紧急迫降，是Surgey和另一名机械师把阻力网好不容易装好让他顺利滑行。

这里是我最喜欢的镜头，就是Surgey被命令回去后还是来找坐在驾驶舱里心有余悸劫后余生的Roman，Roman亲吻了Surgey的手应该是感谢他救了自己，之后Surgey抓住Roman的衣领亲他，差点失去才知道自己已经那么爱他。

就这段没有一句台词但是眼神和动作把他们的感情推上一个高度。

之后就不用说了，露的相对多的一段(其实也不多)，但还是有个Surgey抱着Roman头，心疼担心写在脸上，能感受到他们饱满的情绪。

🐦Roman再次被警告两个人在房间里还差点被发现，我真的不想回忆这段紧张气愤，恶心的KGB还打断了即将发生的亲亲！

直接把Roman吓得对Surgey提了分手。

还娶了女秘书掩人耳目，但是Roman到底是为了自己还是像他说的在protect Surgey呢?应该是两者皆有。

🐦婚礼进行中两人还在后台讲话也是big胆了。

每次Surgey看不下去Roman和女生在一起跑出来后，Roman总是会跟出来，说明Roman一直在关注他呀。

Roman傻傻地问what're u doing这里应该是被牵起了手，然后Surgey要亲他他也没有躲掉，一定是听到Surgey说couldn't forget you被爱情冲昏了头忘了自己在和谁结婚了😮🐦后面两人好不容易出来租房一周的甜蜜假期也是抓马，一一被朋友和妻子发现恋情，最后还被征召上战场，这苦命的鸳鸯。。

可以理解为Roman得知Surgey不会介入他的婚姻要离开他，而Luisa知道了密恋，Roman终于不想再背负这个秘密毅然把生命献给天空也算是一种解脱。

在当时可能也没有更好的选择了。

Roman带Surgey看芭蕾剧，鼓励他追求演员的梦想，把自己儿子名字取成Surgey的小名，我相信他是很爱Surgey的即使他结婚生子隐瞒世人，所以这份爱已经深到他愿意用死亡来抹掉失去爱情的悲伤😭🐦Roman信里的话让人肝肠寸断，I shall always think of you,Surgey.No matter what life may bring,I will always be there with you.但怎么with啊？

灵魂吗？

🐦戏剧始终是戏剧，虽然电影让人悲伤，他们演的太好了，亲密戏超级自然，演出了心动和爱恋，各自的形象也很贴角色。

但这两个演员戏外的追求是两个截然不同的世界。

算是帮助我走出来不要这么入戏🤧

Tom Prior and Oleg Zagorodii in FirebirdDirector Peeter Rebane and leading actor Tom Prior (The Theory of Everything and Kingsman: The Secret Service) fought to bring Sergey Fetisov’s memoir of a secret love affair between two soldiers in the Soviet Air Force to the big screen. Co-written and co-produced by the pair, Firebird is a sensitive if not slightly melodramatic true story of gay love in Soviet-occupied Estonia. Firebird opens in 1977 with Sergey (Prior) serving his last few weeks of conscription. His girlfriend Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) has started planning their life together, but Sergey soon becomes distracted by dashing fighter pilot Lieutenant Roman Medveyev (Oleg Zagorodnii).Looking like silver screen icons of the bygone age of Hollywood, the two men bond over their shared interest in the arts. Sergey once had dreams of becoming a stage actor and a night at the ballet seeing Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird’ brings the pair closer together. Their relationship is all clandestine late-night encounters and longing glances. Luisa hasn’t spotted their connection, obviously placing herself as the third member of a love triangle.An anonymous report exposing Roman’s indiscretions is a reminder that sexual relations between two men wasn’t just frowned upon, it could be punished by five year’s hard labour. The pair must make a decision between risking their lives in the face of escalating KGB investigations, or hiding their feelings. It’s desperately romantic, even if the film chooses melodrama over realism.Firebird’s narrative does take the most obvious turns. The weakness of this film is its reliance on obvious twists and cliched character development. Sergey embarks on an acting career, whilst Roman continues in the military. Tensions heighten when Roman embarks on married, domestic life with a woman whilst Sergey is more relaxed about his sexuality. Firebird leans less on the perilous action of being gay in the Soviet era, but instead on more clandestine affair cliché. Despite the obvious journey, it’s a beautifully realised account of love flourishing against a cold, loveless background. Prior and Zagorodnii look good together, Prior sweet and wide-eyed whilst Zagorodnii is handsome and chiselled. The camera zoom is on their faces, every micro-expression of longing picked up by the lens. The choice to use an international cast speaking English won’t please everyone. Using Estonian dialogue with subtitles may have added an authenticity because at times the Eastern Bloc accents are a little distracting;Parasite proved that if a film is good enough, people will happily read the subtitles.

Still from firebirdFirebird looks visually stunning. The intimate scenes are romantic, with late-night swims and dimly lit lovemaking. Some may criticise that the romance is sanitized with the camera moving away when the mood heats up. This is a film about stolen glances, not steamy nights. For a debut feature director who is famed for music videos and tour documentaries (he was also a Eurovision producer), Rebenae knows how to create an atmosphere. The production design should also be commended. The story can be told between any two men, in any part of the world, in any era in history. It is clear through sets, costume, and sound that this is a Soviet-occupied state in the 1970s. What Firebird lacks in originality, it makes up for in atmosphere. The threat this will all be taken away from them lingers over every scene together. In the daytime, the coldness of military life is reflected in the grey colour palette. The scenes transform from a sterile greyness to a warmness as they meet under dim lights, and in the reflection of the moonlight by the river.Firebird will be familiar to many romantic film fans. It relies on well used tropes that were better executed by Call Me by Your Name and Brokeback Mountain. Anyone looking for that uplifting gay love story should move elsewhere. While it’s a beautiful film, it brings nothing new to the library of LBGTQ+ movies.Yet somehow, it will be enough if someone watching this film can resonate with the story.

作者by Amelia HarveyAmelia is a freelance writer, frustrated novelist and occasional wrangling of international students. She is especially interested in LBGTQ culture and 1960s and 70s music. She also writes for Frame Rated, The People’s Movies and Unkempt Magazine, amongst others. Her favourite films include Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Moulin Rouge and Closer. You can find her on Twitter @MissAmeliaNancy and letterboxd @amelianancy

首先我是一个退役军人，有感而发，希望看完🤲不知道大家有没有感觉这一类的电影看完给人的感受都基于、延伸于《call me by your name》。

我上学期大学里一个语文老师说为什么现代作家总喜欢写耽美文，就是因为男孩子和男孩子的爱情无论放在这个爱站队的当下社会，还是从前都是百般受挫的，结局基本上都是不美好的，这样的文字，比起甜甜的撒狗粮更能触动人心弦，所以导演估计也是为了冲掉观看电影后的受虐感，在电影中很多地方还是安排了一些令人会心一笑的桥段，这一点我觉得很好，因为电影确实很需要不同的情绪来提高受众群体的观影感，毕竟是这是电影，并不是像电视剧那样可以一件小事讲一集的。

其次，这是一个很长的真实的爱情故事，电影本身就已在尽善尽美的把故事的完整性和细节二者融汇贯通。

再说说角色的演技，个人看来三位主角演技都是在线的，有一些说人角色演技很直男，没有共情感，我觉得这是抛开环境去评论演员，首先我们要知道，时间是上世纪70年代，地点是苏联又是在部队，但凡把这三个要素随便换一个更自在一点的不那么压抑的，我都觉得主角就不会有被人说没有演技了。

不知道大家有没有观察过很多细节，电影中频繁的来演习，上校说不准男主讲那种笑话等等很多，这说明什么？

我以亲身经历告诉你，这是准备要dz了，这是一种很压抑环境，要去dz了！

兄弟，更何况他们是上下级关系，一个是高高在上的军官，一个是默默无闻的义务兵，期间的鸿沟，很难一时逾越，没有去部队的人也许真的很难感受这种等级制度极度森严的上下级关系，所以才会对他们的情感产生疑问，综上所述，演员所演的关系真的是恰到好处。

还有一些涉及伦理问题的，我不好评论，但是我觉得还是要去看他们当时所处的环境和人物的真实性格。

总之这部电影给我的感觉就是 捡到宝了

So cliché. The movie seemed good at first, but then became boring after 30 minutes. The WW2 theme was good but the storyline wasn't. The Storyline was boring and script was meh. It was forced and full of wrong decision-makings and issues that could easily be avoided. (I loved the scenes when they visit Sochi for summer. So Beautiful.)以及，Luisa真的太慘了…(The actor Diana Posharskaya who plays Luisa is the one shining light in the film but sadly the story wasn't really about her character :(P.S. The English lead spoke in a really weird clipped accent and I wondered if he was attempting to imitate a Russian accent and failing. 英文很令人出戲真的😂

Firebird is an epic Queer love story set in a tense Soviet Union. This unconventional film followed the romance of Sergey, played by Tom Prior, and Roman, played by Ukrainian hunk, Oleg Lobykin.

Set in the 1970's Cold War, Firebird is an incredibly stylish film. The visuals feel authentic and true to its setting. But surprisingly, there are bouts of action, adding more thrill to a story that is already anxiety inducing. Another twist is that the film explores a love triangle between Roman, Sergey, and Roman's partner, Luisa- played by Diana Pozharskaya. This part of the world has always been incredibly hostile to LGBT+ people. It is common to see an attempt to erase Queer people from the histories and identities of post-Soviet countries. From the 'LGBT free zones' in Poland; the Gay Propaganda Laws in Russia - to the toxic political discourse in Hungary - 'Firebird' is a symbol of Queer existence throughout history. It is a statement that Queer love is not a modern and Western construct, but it is imbedded in the fabric of humanity. And this piece of history- beautifully shown in the film- is a shining example that the #TheNewEastisQueer, and it always has been.In this interview, the writer/lead actor, Tom Prior and director/writer Peeter Rebane talk about the true story of 'Firebird', its making, and what it was like to meet the real Sergey. EAST: Where did you first meet each other? TOM: I was doing some work in Los Angeles, and a film financier that I was meeting- by coincidence- mentioned that she heard about the story of Firebird- which was under a different name at the time- and promised to introduce me to Peeter. Then we basically connected and I read the script, and fell in love with it instantly. It was when the draft of the screenplay was at a very early stage, and that’s really where it began. EAST: Peeter, when did you first discover the story?PEETER: That was over 10 years ago. A friend of mine- who founded the ‘Black Nights Film Festival’ in Tallinn- she received the original story from a Russian journalist showing it around at the Berlinale, and she knew that I was looking for material for my first film. So I read it over a weekend at home, I literally cried and decided that I have to turn this into a film and then started writing for the first time ever.

EAST: ’The New East is Queer’ is a campaign to debunk the myth that Queer people don’t exist in Eastern Europe and Post-Soviet States. Yet here is a queer love story set in Soviet Russia. Were you conscious of this when deciding to make the movie? Did you feel a sense of duty to tell the story?PEETER: Foremost, I was taken a back by the universal love story. I was also fascinated and really surprised when I read the original manuscript that such a relationship could have actually existed in the Soviet airforce. Then we went on to interview people who served in the Soviet military in the 1970’s and found out that many such relationships existed, and we were also fortunate enough to interview Sergey in Moscow. But at the same time I do feel also that it is important to share this story in light of the real horrors that are going on in Russia and especially in Chechnya today. It is important to remind people about the importance of love and how such relationships have existed throughout the ages. TOM: For me its really important to share these messages. But we were very true when we said we made this film- not for political reasons- but for about love, love wins. Sergey’s character in the film is really about following his heart. There are terrible atrocities happening, but being able to make movies like this, we are effectively being that very change that we want to see in the world. EAST: How was Roman cast? PEETER: That was a really long process. We set a very clear intention to find the most authentic actors that are believable to the true story. So we did a world wide casting, and got 2,500 submissions for the role of Roman. For months we were casting in Europe and the UK, to Moscow. One day in Moscow, Oleg walked in the room and everyone was like: “That’s our Roman”. EAST: How was it working with Oleg?TOM: It was a really fascinating process as Peeter said. We just knew from the minute he walked in the room that it was right, this kind of presence. When you talk about casting in a film, you really are casting a person as you are a performer. He had this real presence and he was the nearest person that we felt was Roman, and so, our journey began. Because he is not a native speaker, at all, in fact he had a very small amount of English when we began the project. It has its challenges, and in some ways it actually helped, to a degree, because it meant that we couldn’t communicate as freely as we would, say in a modern day context in English- which serves the story in an amazing way. Because at the time there was no language around the subject matter. Today we are in a very liberal society where we can begin to scale that in a very easy and transparent way, but at the time there wasn’t that. So it bought a really interesting dynamic to the film. Working with Oleg was a real pleasure but it of course it had its challenges as well: cultural background differences, and things like that. But it was a really beautiful working relationship. EAST: Tom, you were a writer as well as an actor in ‘Firebird’. How did this come about?TOM: When Peeter and I met- and fell in love with the story- at that time we didn’t have the financing in place to make the film. So we made a teaser for the film, and the scenes that we selected for the teaser. I made some suggestions about how we might improve the script a bit, and the lines and the nature of the lines. I have a real sensitivity to being able to produce texts or language of how people actually speak- as oppose to how people one would think people speak- this is something I am quite sensitive to. So I made these few suggestions on how we might improve the script and that ended up several pages of notes and ended up as several weeks of work, which ended up being overall significant rewrites and redrafts and restructures- and doing lots and lots more research. Then by that point, the script was completely a different animal to what I first came to. So we took the strong elements of that and then imbedded in a lot more research.

EAST: Thats an interesting point. After stalking your Instagram its quite clear that you are a spiritual person and quite centred. Did these qualities help you in your writing or acting?TOM: Most definitely. For me this project has been quite extraordinary, in the sense of the level of depth that I have been able to get to. Writing the content, for sure, is a whole other level as a performer. Then also meeting the real Sergey, we interviewed him in Moscow, we also very tragically went to his funeral. He passed away in the time that we were developing the story, and it was a very surreal moment for me, to be at the funeral of a person whose life you have extended in the literary form, and who you will play in real life. So there were very strong moments during the time filming that there was this awareness that Sergey was with us, or certainly the energy. For me, having a real level of emergence within the project meant that the emotion came easily, or the stream of conscienceless, lets say. It was very profound and beautiful for the opportunity to do that as a performer. EAST: And when you met Sergey Fetisov, what were your impressions of him, and did these impressions influence the way you played or wrote about him? TOM: Very much so. It was an honour to meet him, and he was so very full of heart. He was a very heart-led man. You could tell that he had such a sunny persona, and despite having had a lot of trials and tribulations in love, he was bold and happy. So I bought that level of following your heart, and that bounciness to the performance- where I could - without making it seem to out of context at the same time. EAST: And for you Peeter, how was it meeting Sergey Fetisov, and did this impact the way you directed the film?PEETER: As Tom said, he was an amazingly warm and heartfelt person, considering what he had gone through in his life, and how these experiences had made him loving and not hating. I think he definitely informed how we developed the character, and it was an amazing treasure trove speaking to him about actual details, like: what were their favourite pieces of music; what were their favourite foods; which music they would play to each other; which books would they read; which theatre plays they went to see. It all kind of built a world, and helped us to be very authentic in directing and staging the film.EAST: Peeter, being from Estonia, was there anything about your heritage and personal identity that you bought to the project?PEETER: Definitely, when I was a very young boy I still recall the Soviet occupation, and our summer house was actually the airforce base where this story takes place. I have this distinct memory of my friend being on this bicycle and these two MiG’s (Mikoyan-Gurevich) flying overhead at maybe 150 feet, and us literally falling off the bicycles because the noise was so deafening. So I have a very strong personal connection, besides having grown up with this feeling of shame about ones sexuality, having to hide your true identity, and the surrounding environment lacking understanding and being ignorant. So, a lot of parallels for me. EAST: How much history is in the story?PEETER: I think its, well I don’t dare to say 100%, but I think its 99% historically correct. The events happening, the small details of the airforce base, the setting, we really made our upmost to make a film that looks and feels like the 1970’s could have looked and felt like.

EAST: And there seems to be a big military presence in the film. PEETER: From the directing perspective, we had amazing consultants. We had a retired airforce base, a retired Soviet airforce base commander, flight pilot, a person who worked in the command centre, who directed all the flights. We had a lot of people who literally went through the script, went through the dialogues, who were on the set with us, telling us to do it like this, or do it this way. We put trust in not making a Hollywood version of what someone envisages, but in thorough research. TOM: The intricacy of the details is very particular, I mean, even when it comes to the radio announcements, and things like that, and the calling in’s to the planes and the lights from the command centre and everything- its all very accurate. We did the best research to our knowledge, to make sure that it was as real as possible, and the same really with the job titles, the job roles. The military consultants in particular were very useful and an intrinsic part of the training for the performance: the way we would walk; the hand salutes; all this military realism that actually happened, and making sure that the attention to detail- our costume department were really great around that also. So, the military aspects of the film, even this accident, there was an accident sequence within the film as well, which was in the original story, and I was absolutely adamant we had to put it into the film, to give it this military flare, instead of having it simply as a backdrop, but actually as an action sequence, this was really paramount and important to me, to ground it into the real world. EAST: Any personal highlights from onset?Peeter: I think for me one of the most amazing shots was the last shot of the film. Without giving away too much, it lasts about 1.5 minutes, and the camera is going into Sergey, and technically it was huge challenge for our team to pull it off, but also performance wise, for Tom to act out all the different emotions, truthfully, being surrounded by 50 or 60 extras, and knowing that we can’t cut, and that this is all real time, one very long take. TOM: Its a very unforgiving shot, lets put it that way. I’m very proud of that moment, and what came through. It was one of those moments that I was speaking out earlier, where there was this profound connection. I started experiencing some very curious things, emotionally. It was like being show the end of ones life, but I was experiencing it in the real time, which was quite curious. For me, the highlight and more significant highlights of the film was really my personal growth. That to me is a huge success. As a measure of success, it challenged me emotionally, physically, spiritually, and now its a sort of standing point, as a physical manifestation of what one can achieve when there are so many odds against you and challenges and time limiting factors, and all those kind of things. So yeah, we can have a whole other discussion of that for the highlights. But we were so blessed, to have such a wonderful committed and loyal team who were willing to go way above standard hours, the commitment was astounding. EAST: Peeter, did you learn anything about yourself personally or professionally during this project?PEETER: Absolutely, first of all it was my first full length feature. I have done documentaries, but that’s a whole different game. Learning all the nuances of directing on the set of the feature, and actually doing a pretty challenging script. We shot in the air, under the water, in the baltic sea, staged Hamlet in theatre, staged the full production of Firebird, including costumes and choreography, dancers and sets- a lot of very specific scenes. It was very challenging and I had a lot of personal growth during this process, over the last couple of years. TOM: I think for me also, as I mentioned, the physical challenges, the stamina, keeping up your health, mental clarity and sharpness through longer days, and resilience through that. Some days there would be, 5, 6, 7, 8 costume changes, multiple different set environments, we would have to change them very quickly as well. I would be sitting on the train, where we would shoot the train sequences, and moving from one emotional state to another, within minutes, and the whole world of the character has changed and gone upside down in that time. So, to be able to tune in to that energy, that emotional change very quickly, was really amazing. And to also play a lead in a film, there is this overwhelming pressure that you can put on yourself, and to scale that, was for me, a real joy and a real challenge, at times. To stay centred, to stay focussed, and to know what we have got to do and what we are there to do, and yeah, this was a really beautiful example of change and growth, and long hours, knowing that you can do it, and you have got to get through it.

EAST: How relevant do you think the story is for todays audience?Tom: For me, the story is very relevant in terms of following your heart. We live in a world which is probably more divided than ever, with regards to health, with regards to beliefs and perceptions. It is a standing point for following your heart. Actually, if you choose to walk that path, its not necessarily going to be the easiest route, but its probably somewhat the most rewarding- in terms of being able to feel and develop as a person. The film is about following ones heart and ones desires against all the odds, and against the laws of the country and the environment in which somebody grows up in. I hope this is a standing point of inspiration to follow your heart, to love daringly, that would be my wish and hope for its relevance today. EAST: Do you have any plans to show this to Eastern audiences? Peeter: Absolutely, we will distribute the film across the world. We trust we will be at some festivals in the summer, also Autumn, late October- and end of the year we will have a wider distribution across the region. So, I guess we will see how the world is as we open, and depending on how much we will be in cinemas. But definitely, we will be on all major platforms across Europe. 'Firebird' premiered at the 2021 BFI Flare Festival on 17th March 2021 and is available to stream on the BFI Player until 28th March 2021.

没什么野心的爱情片，踏踏实实讲了个一开始就注定是悲剧的故事。

想起《新白发魔女传》下一条短评说，爱要面目全非才好看。

每次看到这句我都会想，“好看”与否是站在看客立场给出的评价，我们轻飘飘的摇头或赞赏指向的，是戏中人的一生。

“好看”很重要吗？

有时候我宁愿有情人都得到最俗气最安定的幸福。

死里逃生后惊魂未定的拥抱，同榻而眠时认真勾勒的未来，向主流生活投降后在暗房里偷偷凝视挚爱的影像，下一秒传来妻子的呼唤，于是打开房门，任胶卷在强光下失效。

——是的，妻子。

在文艺作品里，我倾向于把社会问题还原到具体的人身上，在这里我不想探讨群体、不想剖析结构，我只看到了三个痛苦的人。

爱里没有无辜者，但路易莎显然是最不应该承受悲剧的人。

男人都有处可逃，逃向戏剧，逃向蓝天，他们有一整个“外面”可以躲避自我，路易莎没有， 她是罗曼的妻子、是谢廖沙的母亲，唯独不能是医科大学的学生。

她放弃了一切，把自己献给建立在谎言上的家庭。

愿某地方，不需将爱杀害；愿某日子，不需痛苦忍耐。