ANDREY PONKRATOV

I am a Production Designer who splits my time between Europe and California, originally hailing from Moscow, Russia. Fueled by a lifelong love for drawing, I eventually found myself at VGIK, Russia's premier film school, where I discovered cinema's profound and complex power. While VGIK provided a valuable foundation, my deepest understanding of filmmaking ultimately blossomed from collaborating with incredible directors, especially Andrey Zvyagintsev.

 He has been my friend and collaborator for more then 20 years. Together we made "Minotaur", “Leviathan”, “Loveless”, “Elena”, and “Banishment. From the very first meeting, I was absolutely impressed by his vision and ability to tell a story. I believe in his idea of creating a reality more truthful in every aspect than the world around us. All the worlds created with Andrey we constructed as he strongly believes that only fully controlled space can serve well for the script, and that image has a strong power when it is clean.

Every project I start from a blank page because every director is different and has his own approach. The period movie “Duelist” by Alexey Mizgirev had a provocative art form and was a challenge in terms of scale.  “Attraction” by Fedor Bondarchuk was from a sci-fi universe where my goal was to humanize a futuristic look. With Grigory Dobrygin it was travel into precise composition and we focused on small details in “At close distance” and “Sheena667”. Working with Kirill Serebrennikov was an endless experiment in improvisation, resulting in the light and seamless magic of 'Leto.

In a truly great film, all departments blend seamlessly, and the audience loses themselves in the story, oblivious to the individual contributions of any single artist. We become one united force, crafting an indivisible piece of reality.

ponckratov_a@yahoo.com