BITING ELBOWS - 'BAD MOTHERFUCKER' - VIDEO AND INTERVIEW

'R' RATING: Mildly bloody, extreme jeopardy, crazy stunts, bad language and time travel. 

INTERVIEW WITH SINGER / DIRECTOR ILYA NAISHULLER

A friend forwarded the jaw-dropping video from Russia's Biting Elbows the other day. Entitled 'Bad Motherfucker ( Insane Office Escape 2 )', it's a wildly inventive and sprawling gangster shoot-em-up, with a nifty sci-fi element. We had to call up the director Ilya Naishuller and find out how they did it.

Hi Ilya. The Biting Elbows video is, quite possibly, the greatest pop promo I've ever seen. The band is not known yet in the West - how long have Biting Elbows been going?

- We've been around in our current form since 2009, and this is our third release.


- It's a pretty high-energy track - what are the band's musical influences?

- Everyone in the band loves different stuff, like Sublime, Rancid, Pixies, Violent Femmes, Smiths, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Clash etc.

- Did you study at film school? The video is amazing!

- No, I haven't studied film-making anywhere. Rodriguez and Woo were an influence, but only among many others on a long list.

- I would definitely recommend Rodriguez' classic book 'Rebel without a Crew'.

- I'm gonna sound pompous but I read that book in '95 or so..!

- Ha-ha, I'm putting that in the interview! So how long did the video take to prepare?

- We had a total of nine shooting days, however, it took almost a year to make, as a lot of time was invested into planning and finding finances.

- I was going to say that all the actors all look like professional stuntmen. Was it very expensive to shoot?

- All our budget went into stunts. We had one professional stuntman - he is the guy running away from the main character - and he was also directing the stunts. We had a group of four professionals behind the cameras making sure all the stunts ( jumps, falls, etc. ) go smoothly. The main character is performed by Sergey Valyaev, who is a parcour performer. The rest were just friends.

- Was it complicated to choreograph?

- The choreography was difficult indeed, and was a result of many trials and error. You come up with an idea, then find a location, then come up with an idea again; then come up with a filming crew and come up with yet another idea... And every time you have to look and change, look and change, and so on. The only simple scenes are those where it's just running.

- Thanks for the interview, and congratulations on a great piece of work!

- Thanks Alexi, and good luck out there - !

BITING ELBOWS WEBSITE

Breaking News: There will be an announcement from Ilya soon, regarding a full-blown feature film. Stay tuned!

- Interview by Alexi K with Ivan Borisov.