Nikolai Khomeriki, who was born in Belokamennaya in 1975, at first for a long time could not decide on the choice of a profession. At the insistence of the parents, the future director graduated from an economic university, became an accountant in a branch of Coca-Cola. Having proved himself properly, he went to Amsterdam to continue his education and get an MBA. In addition, the young man created a joint venture for the supply of household chemicals to the capital. Business developed successfully, but fate was adamant.
The first steps in the film industry
While studying at a Moscow economic university, Nikolai Khomeriki became a regular at the Museum of Cinema, and gradually he began to study this subspecies of art. While in Amsterdam, he enrolled in the local video library, continued his self-education, revising the classics of cinema. Surprisingly, Khomeriki discovered that in Russia there is a special understanding of the classics of cinema, according to which Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Bergman occupy the Olympus of cinema, and no less talented directors are not so highly rated. The more the future director revised the films, the more he became interested in lesser-known authors. Among the paintings that influenced the formation of Khomerika’s creative thoughts are A. Tarkovsky’s “Stalker”, paintings by French “new wave” directors that amaze Nikolai with their ease of drama, and some films by German filmmakers. According to the director, he admires the work of Rainer Fassbinder, whom no one in Russia puts on a par with world famous classics, since he managed to shoot two pictures in a year. For the Soviet / Russian school - it is unconvincing and not monumental.
The beginning of the creative path
Upon returning to Moscow, Nikolai Khomeriki submits documents for admission to higher courses for directors and scriptwriters. By this time, he had not shot a single shot and was a complete layman in how the movies are made. V. Khotinenko became his mentor, although A. German was more influential in his studies . The debut work of Khomeriki was a three-minute sketch of “The Drop”, which was highly appreciated by the Sopot Film Festival. After a triumphant statement about himself in the world of cinema, Nikolai Khomeriki was awarded a grand prize by the French Foreign Ministry for postgraduate studies at one of the national leading film schools La Femis. After completing his education, the French filmmaker Philippe Garrell invited Nicholas to become his assistant during the filming of The Regular Lovers.
Great movie
Directed by Nikolai Khomeriki, before creating the existential parable "977", he shot some pretty impressive short films. The film “Nine seven seven” was ranked by domestic film critics as “intellectual thrash,” a special genre of modern cinema. According to the plot, all the characters in the film are voluntary participants in a certain experiment. They are subjected not only to scientific research, but also to life tests - love, friendship, curiosity and envy. As a result, the initially planned scientific experiment turns into a social one, and the consequences threaten to become unpredictable.
About the clogged world
After participating in the “Special Look” sub-competition of the Cannes Film Festival, Nikolai Khomeriki, whose films have already become the property of the world cinema community, in a creative alliance with cameraman Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev, decides to tell the world a fairy tale based on the script of the film playwright Alexander Rodionov. The scriptwriter was able to find a new story and create a script for a film about a clogged world. The name of the new project was chosen with particular care, as the authors tried to lay a specific message in the name. "The Tale of Darkness" immediately after creation was positioned as a Russian art house. The plot introduced the viewer to the fate of the main character - a very beautiful and clean girl who, working in the children's room of the police, tries in every possible way to adapt to the surrounding reality. In many paintings, including this project of Khomeriki, the ex-ballerina, actress Alisa Khazanova, was shot. The director met her in France. At that time, Khazanova was in captivity of a deep depression due to a serious injury that interrupted her ballet career at the peak of success. It was the director who was destined to become the person who gave the girl hope, helped to find a new profession. “The Tale ...” by famous film critics is called the beginning of the director’s rapid evolution, the heyday of his original style.
Dynamic but not massive movie
The Tale of Darkness and the subsequent Boomerang Hearts took part in the competitive screening of The Special Look at the Cannes Film Festival. The last tape is black and white, light and devilishly beautiful. The brainchildren of Khomerka were again admired, and the director was assigned the status of a Cannes favorite. The plot of the drama "Boomerang Hearts" would be ideal for a long melodramatic television series. Young guy Kostya, who works as an assistant to the driver, is given a disappointing diagnosis. According to the verdict of medical specialists, he can die at any time due to inoperable heart disease. The hero holds emotions in himself, and no longer thinking about the meaning of life, he tries to take everything from her.
Disarming unpretentious
The director’s next project, Onega, disarms the beholder with its unpretentiousness. The cinema sketch is a lingering plan of a little girl looking at the camera without blinking, mounted with a long plan of a calm smooth surface of the water that flickers in the train window. The timing of the project is only three minutes. Filmed by the unchanged cameraman Alisher Hamidkhodzhaev, Nikolai Khomeriki most willingly collaborates with him. The director’s wife, in an interview with the media, said that this short film was an excerpt shot during the filming of the film about autistic children, Lyubov Arkus. By the way, the director’s wife is Stasya Khomeriki-Grankovskaya, a dramatic actress. Most recently, she made her debut in the series of her husband, “Secrets of the City of En” (2015), playing a secondary role of Ida.