Natalya Meshchaninova

Natalya Meshchaninova

Birth : 1982-02-17, Krasnodar, USSR (Russia)

History

Director of fiction and documentary cinema, scriptwriter, writer. Winner of the NIKA award (for the script for “Arrhythmia”), prize-winner and participant of national and international film festivals. Born in Krasnodar. Graduated from Kuban State University of Culture and Arts, majoring in directing for film and television (2005). Worked as director at Krasnodar TV. After training at the Internews School of Documentary Cinema (2007, Marina Razbezhkina’s workshop), she started making documentary films. Worked on the serial “School” (2010). Her debut feature came with “Hope Factory” (2014), which won a prize for Best Debut at the White Elephant awards and a special award “Voice” from young film critics; participated in the competition of Rotterdam IFF and Kinotavr. Her series “Red Bracelets” won the Grand Prix at Dvizhenie [Movement] festival in 2015.

Profile

Natalya Meshchaninova

Movies

Snegir
Screenplay
The story of a simple sailor of the Northern Fishing Fleet, who dreams of ending his naval career, since his life at sea seems unreal to him, illusory. He is going to go ashore, marry and settle on the ground. To heal. But nothing comes out. He is forced to sail again. An adventure cinema begins with a large number of twists and turns: the strongest storm, a hole in the board, a haul pulling the ship to the bottom. The trawler practically sinks and at this moment receives the SOS signal from a foreign ship in distress. The main character manages to convince the rest of the crew to come, risking themselves, to help foreign sailors. Thanks to this act, the team - a gathering of sea wolves, practically pirates - has a feeling of meaningfulness of their own lives.
My Little Nighttime Secret
Screenplay
Fourteen-year-old Mira wants to spend New Year’s Eve with her friend Lera. Initially, her stepfather disagrees. But, after a tense family dinner, she is given permission.
My Little Nighttime Secret
Director
Fourteen-year-old Mira wants to spend New Year’s Eve with her friend Lera. Initially, her stepfather disagrees. But, after a tense family dinner, she is given permission.
And That’s It
Screenplay
A pandemic has ravaged the world outside. Julia and Volodya are a couple that suffers from Coronaphobia by taking the safety measurements far too seriously. After anticipating all the possible scenarios and doing breathing exercises, the couple reluctantly goes out to the street, a place, in Volodya’s own words, “full of COVID bastards”. Armored and hysterically, the couple arrives at an ordinary supermarket. Almost turning against each other, their suspicion is translated into episodes of excessive outrages against the local shoppers who, according to the couple, are painfully and inconsiderably carefree. Their mission seems to be a success until they encounter an unmasked shopper. From then on, things go downhill for the main characters.
And That’s It
Director
A pandemic has ravaged the world outside. Julia and Volodya are a couple that suffers from Coronaphobia by taking the safety measurements far too seriously. After anticipating all the possible scenarios and doing breathing exercises, the couple reluctantly goes out to the street, a place, in Volodya’s own words, “full of COVID bastards”. Armored and hysterically, the couple arrives at an ordinary supermarket. Almost turning against each other, their suspicion is translated into episodes of excessive outrages against the local shoppers who, according to the couple, are painfully and inconsiderably carefree. Their mission seems to be a success until they encounter an unmasked shopper. From then on, things go downhill for the main characters.
Полина и Андрей
Screenplay
Поздняя осень
Screenplay
Поздняя осень
Director
Core of the World
Screenplay
Egor is a vet at a training facility for hunting dogs in a remote region of the country. Surrounded by foxes, deer, badgers, and dogs, he lives in a small building next to the house of the facility's master. He treats the dogs, cleans the kennels, oversees the workers, and meets with clients and their dogs. It's easier for him to get along with dogs than with people. Egor is willing to take on any job to get closer to the facility's master and his near and dear. He wants the impossible - to become a member of that family.
Core of the World
Director
Egor is a vet at a training facility for hunting dogs in a remote region of the country. Surrounded by foxes, deer, badgers, and dogs, he lives in a small building next to the house of the facility's master. He treats the dogs, cleans the kennels, oversees the workers, and meets with clients and their dogs. It's easier for him to get along with dogs than with people. Egor is willing to take on any job to get closer to the facility's master and his near and dear. He wants the impossible - to become a member of that family.
My Love
Producer
Тrue Kazakh girls don’t marry Russians. This is what grandma Zeinegul believes in. But her beloved granddaughter disobeyed her will. Many years later the girl comes back to Kazakhstan. Her mother drinks, her grandma prays, her father got married again, but she wants to take a picture of her whole family, just like the one they took years ago when she was a child. The picture of the family she loves and hates so much.
Anna's War
Screenplay
The entire family of a 6-year-old Anna dies in the mass coordinated execution of Jews. The mother covers up Anna with her own body, and the girl miraculously survives. For the next few hundred days Anna hides in the disused chimney at the Nazi Commandant's office. From her shelter she watches as life passes her by until the village is liberated from the Nazi. In these inhuman conditions Anna not only survives but keeps her humanity. Many factors help her: memories from the life swept away by war, the cultural foundations laid by the parents and a friend who saves her from loneliness.
Arrhythmia
Screenplay
Oleg is a young gifted paramedic. His wife Katya works as a nurse at the hospital emergency department. She loves Oleg, but is fed up with him caring more about patients than her. She tells him she wants a divorce. The new head of Oleg’s EMA department is a cold-hearted manager who’s got new strict rules to implement. Oleg couldn’t care less about the rules – he’s got lives to save; his attitude gets him in trouble with the new boss. The crisis at work coincides with the personal life crisis. Caught up between their patients, alcohol-fueled off-shifts, and an evolving health care system, Oleg and Katya have to find the binding force that will keep them together.
Go to
Producer
Varya is sixteen. Varya doesn't go to school. Varya asks that she be called Sasha. Varya has a goal - to go to St. Petersburg. She plays the violin in the train, earning a trip. But the trip of a dream turns out to be a dangerous adventure, in which everything goes not according to plan...
The Hope Factory
Screenplay
Industrial city of Norilsk: factories, cold, chemical air. The only desire of young people living here is to leave, against all odds. A docu-style, emotionally-driven drama about a young girl desperately fighting for an escape which is so blurry, and for love which is so insecure.
The Hope Factory
Director
Industrial city of Norilsk: factories, cold, chemical air. The only desire of young people living here is to leave, against all odds. A docu-style, emotionally-driven drama about a young girl desperately fighting for an escape which is so blurry, and for love which is so insecure.
Another Year
Screenplay
He's an unemployed guy who earns some money by giving lifts to strangers. She's a graphic designer who just got her first job. The film tracks their relationship - and the way it gradually melts away - throughout a year. A subtle, moving portrait of an immature love that breaks down easily.
Х-Х
Director
A whole ethnographic study on the topic of who are the fans of "Leningrad", performed against all the laws of the genre. The musicians themselves act as accomplices in the filming process here — one of the cameras, for example, is fixed on Shnurov's stomach. Other cameras follow the fans of the band, quite funny and accurately recording their emotions and actions from hugs to fights and transmitting the atmosphere of unbridled fun and off-scale adrenaline, which is famous for "Leningrad". Terribly funny, tearfully cute, sometimes scary - the effect of a full-length presence.
Herbarium
Director of Photography
Beauty contest in the retirement home? “Horror! – you would say. – They barely breathe”. Not at all! Who said that womanhood, beauty and eye shine die before their owners do? Everybody thinks their only consolation are shelves with drugs. But it is revealed that among these shelves the eternal women steel is hidden. And the old ladies manage it very good.
Herbarium
Screenplay
Beauty contest in the retirement home? “Horror! – you would say. – They barely breathe”. Not at all! Who said that womanhood, beauty and eye shine die before their owners do? Everybody thinks their only consolation are shelves with drugs. But it is revealed that among these shelves the eternal women steel is hidden. And the old ladies manage it very good.
Herbarium
Director
Beauty contest in the retirement home? “Horror! – you would say. – They barely breathe”. Not at all! Who said that womanhood, beauty and eye shine die before their owners do? Everybody thinks their only consolation are shelves with drugs. But it is revealed that among these shelves the eternal women steel is hidden. And the old ladies manage it very good.
The Edge of the Broken Moon
Writer
The film tells about a teenage girl Sonya, whose mother lied for many years about the death of her father, after which she ran away from home. Mother and older sister find the girl in an old dacha, where they finally find an opportunity to speak out all the problems, resentments and fears that have been hushed up so diligently for years.