L’Extradition

According to me, a film exists through its amosphere, its inner pressure. It’s as important to the director as it is to the audience. I tried to find my own style in the rythm of movements, in the language, light, shadow, black and white of images and in the apparent distance and the external form’s simplicity.
But I didn’t make an historical film : it’s not interesting to me. What I want is to show how historical facts affect our present behaviour.
Sergeï Nïetschaïev, the Russian revolutionary, made the Swiss government act in its very typical way and unmask itself. The Swiss government extradited this man to the Tzarist government against a commercial agreement. I profoundly dislike this kind of opportunism.
Sergeï remains an ambiguous character : he’s both likable and unpleasant, he’s neither a hero nor a anti hero. It’s hard to empathize with him and that is what I found interesting. He was a convinced doctrinaire who, with tenacity and an extremely strong will, wanted to trigger revolution by force, until he completely failed.
Peter Von Gunten