Semyon Riabukha

I write scripts, stage plays, prose and poetry

Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible.

Leo Tolstoy

SEMYON RIABUKHA

writer | director

short bio

Was born in Kostanay (Republic of Kazakhstan) in 1987. Graduated from the Chelyabinsk State Academy of Culture and Arts (Russian Federation), Department of Cinema and TV directing in 2014. In 2016 finished two years Screenwriter course in St. Petersburg. After facing challenging circumstances in 2022 was forced to move from Russia. Since May of 2022 based in Istanbul. Currently work as script- and playwriter.

short feature movies

I produced as a writer and director

"Sign of life", feature short, 2010

"While I remember", documentary, short, 2011

"Maria's songs", documentary, short, 2012

"The Lullaby", feature short, 2014

"18 views of the gulf", experimental, short, 2015

"Potential", experimental, short, 2016

"Neither now nor after", found-footage, short, 2019

"Closed Doors", feature short, 2020

Closed Doors

Thief, disguised as a delivery guy, breaks into the apartment for and suddenly meets the owner

watch
The Lullaby

One day in the life of a bread factory worker

watch
Potential

Golfing in the infinite space that exists according to its own principles

watch
18 views of the gulf

Four seasons captured in the same place over two years represent the passage of time

watch

selected film festivals

I have participated in

Festival de Jovenes Realizadores (Spain)
MOV, International Student Film Festival (Brazil)
Poitiers Film Festival (France)
Random Film Fest (Poland)
CourToujours (Switzerland)
International Film Schools Festival "Kinoproba" (Russia)
13th St. Petersburg International Festival of Debut and Student Films "Beginning". Diploma of the magazine "Seance" in memory of film critic Sergei Dobrotvorsky "For search for sources of the impossible".
The Unprecedented Cinema (Estonia)
BAIQONYR International short film festival (Kazakhstan)

artist statement

In my work I often rely on facts that I have seen in everyday life or taken from news feeds. However, I prefer to go beyond the fact into the realm of metaphysics, when the spiritual principle of life breaks through the everyday and crude materiality. I call it metaphysical realism. By spiritual, I do mean humanism, faith in humans and their kindness. Even in my darkest writings, I try to leave room for hope and changes for the better. Let these changes happen not to the heroes, but at least to the audience.

As for prose, I often rely on my own experience and my style is closest to the genre of auto-fiction. Here I follow the same principles. The truth of the fact for me is not higher than the truth of art, but it enriches the artistic image and is its basis.

The main themes I explore are: moral compromise, deals with conscience, the search for a point of support in a world – external or internal – on the verge of collapse.

the milestones

of my career are connected with cities

I was born and raised in Kostanay

in northern Kazakhstan. I first graduated from university in my hometown – as an engineer. Since then, I have treated my work as a well-planned process. Spontaneity and improvisation in creativity – yes, chaos in the writing process – no.

At 21, I moved to Chelyabinsk

where I studied at the Academy of Culture and Arts, in the Film and Television Directing Department. It is hard to imagine a more striking contrast – a harsh industrial Russian city, where half the sky is covered with smoke from ferrous metallurgy enterprises and the spirit of art that blows wherever it wants. And most of the current themes – about closed, silent people in difficult circumstances – I drew from that life.

Then there was St. Petersburg

There I completed a two-year course in screenwriting, a month-long course in script editing and a course in writing series. This city occupies an important place in my life. I still miss it, as I was forced to leave it after I was detained in March 2022 for participating in an anti-war rally and I spent two weeks in a temporary detention center. Oh, those were two weeks that I spent in the company of a physicist, a jazz musician and a master's degree in economics. Wonderful people who disagree with the Russian regime.

Now I am in Istanbul

It was love at first sight and the city seems to have reciprocated. One way or another, I live and work here: I continue to write scripts, I started writing a novel, I took up plays, I write poetry in English. I don’t know how much longer I will stay here. My nomadic spirit is already calling me to discover new cities. Who knows which one will be next on this list.

at the moment

I started my career as a director, making several short films that took part in international festivals. After a short foray into the gallery business, when I curated a dozen exhibitions, there were scriptwriting courses.

Since writing turned out to be closer to me than working on a film set and due to the current impossibility of making movies as a director, I have switched to writing scripts and stage plays. But I still have not closed this door.

Anyhow theatrical dramaturgy and prose have entered my life as a manifestation of the highest creative freedom.

projects

I've finished recently or currently working on

full-length drama movie

The Lakeshore

Former spouses go to a country house to show and sell the property. However, a tragedy occurred in this house a year ago and owners have to play their game as happy partners in front potential buyers, young married couple.

read a synopsis

stage play

Sea is shaking

A father and daughters who survived an earthquake but lost their wife and mother. A story about difficult choices and forgiveness.

read a synopsis

autofiction (novel)

Decaying waves

A character in search of his place in the world, in which he has to move from place to place, meet new people and immediately say goodbye to them.

read a first chapter

stage play

His Supervisor

The Guardian Angel and His Supervisor deal with the circumstances of the death of the Angel's ward, because If the person under guardianship died an unhappy death, then the Angel must return to earth to live out his life for him.

stage play

Accomplices

Two young guys who bought drugs, when caught by the police, plant stuff on an innocent person, shifting the blame onto him, they justify their actions with some kind of meaning.

full-length horror movie

Talk to him

A grieving mother decides to use new technology to create a realistic hologram of her child, whose death she blames herself for.

how it all started

My passion for cinema and writing began by chance. I was 20 years old, lived in a small town in Northern Kazakhstan and knew little about cinema and was used to watching what was shown on local television. But one day everything changed.

I borrowed a DVD from a friend with four films recorded on it. The first three did not interest me, but the fourth... I saw on the screen: a black and white image of a destroyed Japanese temple, rain, a peasant, a monk, a bandit, a sobbing woman, the ghost of a murdered samurai, a stolen knife, and in the finale, a crying baby and an act of human kindness. Have you guessed yet?

It was Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa which made such an impression on me that I decided to become a director, I still use the title of this film and the year it was made as my email address.

Then I became interested in theater and prose. But first there was a black and white film about a peasant, a monk, a child screaming in the rain and an act of kindness.

feel free to contact me

Semyon Riabukha

writer | director

Phone: +90 531 737 3545 (WhatsApp)
Email: rasemon1950@gmail.com