Iosif Raykhelgauz: "Nobody tells me "put this on the stage, but don't put this"

In an interview, Raykhelgauz called Alexander Lukashenko a bastard, told why he worships Chubais and whether Navalny was justly imprisoned, how well Zelensky “plays” the role of President of Ukraine, and also explained why he considers Bogomolov and Serebrennikov to be talents and how harassment in the theater environment is associated with mediocrity.

About the quality of education in theater universities

Teach twenty operators at once, you will have a course at VGIK. When they finish, one will become some kind of Rerberg, one will become a genius, and the rest will shoot professionally. Here is the same directing and acting, there are no extraordinary secrets here. There is talent, there is no talent. There is talent - it will color the whole technology. It is like in the periodic table. And if there is no talent, he will work professionally.

There are very good educational institutions, this is our golden five in Moscow, GITIS, VGIK, there are weaker ones, there are simply bandit educational institutions in Moscow. There are a huge number of them, those who call themselves institutes of Russian art, institutes named after Kobzon, institutes named after someone else. Basically, those who could not enter normal institutes go there, those who cannot stage performances, cannot play, cannot engage in practical theater, teach, they go to earn money.

Thus, this is the same thing that in the theater is called an entreprise, sharashim and collects money, the same is there. Then these boys and girls, mostly girls, begin to wander around the theaters of Moscow, St. Petersburg and the theater province and tell mom and dad who spent money on them: “Do you know why they don’t take me? Because the directors are terrible, they all achieve something different, they need ... ”And this absurdity continues for many years.

About censorship today

There is no censorship today, not yet. Maybe something will happen, it will come. Today I responsibly declare: no one tells me, not my Minister of Culture Kibovsky, no one tells me: “Put this, but don't put this”; “This is good and this is bad,” critics tell me. It's fine.

Dismissal of employees due to participation in rallies in support of Navalny

I am confident that I would not have fired. Maybe they would burn me with an iron, break my hands, torture me, but if any chief told me: “Expel your student at GITIS, fire your theater employee for leaving and expressing his opinion,” I will say: “You left mind. " This is not what we fought for, and this is not what we went to the White House for in August 1991.

About the attitude towards Kirill Serebrennikov

I must say, for example, the play "The Apprentice" by Kirill Serebrennikov shocked me emotionally directly, but some other performance did not. The main thing here is that these are talented, powerful directors, and it seems to me that we should keep them, cherish and create for them the most favored nation treatment. When you can see that it is talent.

About the attitude towards Konstantin Bogomolov and his manifesto

Talent, of course. It is a normal business for a director to provoke the audience (and for the director, practically the entire population is the audience) to one or another manifestation. Therefore, Kostya wants, he is so provocative.

I must tell you that Bogomolov has very interesting texts, he is very gifted in literature, and he is a very talented person. And the fact that someone does not accept his performances in principle is normal. Someone fundamentally does not receive the first and second channels of central television, and someone cannot hear Echo of Moscow and the Dozhd channel, and this is also normal.

Moreover, it is not for your television to talk about it, you have it on both sides. So it's great that Bogomolov is working, and the most important criterion for his work is whether the audience wants to see it or not. As long as they want to, as long as they buy tickets, as long as they justify state care for the theater, everything is fine.

Why he worships Chubais

It is no coincidence that we curse Chubais, I actually do not curse him, I adore him, I consider him the smartest and most outstanding person of our time. It is fortunate that we live with him at the same time, I am sure that monuments will be erected to him, that history will also appreciate his enormous role in the life of the country.

But we got the right, most importantly, to speak. We got the right to read what we want (remember, we did not read under Soviet rule). We got the right to move freely around the world. We got the right to private property. We received the right to use the results and benefits of our labor. And I can endlessly read such, excuse me, not fiction, but, most likely, some kind of administrative and financial lecture, as it was and as it is.

For me, this country is beloved, talented, dear Russia, this is my country. And nevertheless, I really want my children, my grandchildren in this country to live in a civilized world, in a world where, first of all, the law rules, and not concepts, in a world where you are judged by the results of your work.

On the situation in Ukraine

I believe that their global mistake is that they have pressed and continue to press the Russian language.

It is no coincidence that they call 2014 a revolution of dignity, they are right: they did not suffer such human humiliation and they exploded. It reminds me of what is happening with them now, our nineties, when development and corruption, there is a lot of foolishness, there is a lot of foam, there is a lot of rubbish.

Nevertheless, they are trying to create the main thing - they are trying to create a legal state. If they succeed - happiness, they will enter Europe.

If they do not succeed, they will return to that lawlessness, from which we have not been able to get out for many years.

About the letter to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky

When Zelensky was elected, I addressed him with a large letter. This is incredibly funny, he may not have read them, maybe the letter did not reach him, but I sent it to the Presidential Administration and there were points.

I wrote: "Dear Vladimir, you are now playing the most important role in your life as a president, and it seems to me, forgive me, but I will allow myself, since I participated in the preparation of the presidential message for such a great president as Boris Nikolayevich, I will allow myself...". And I wrote there about the Russian language, and about the discovery, and about the destruction of this monstrous list of those who were in the Crimea, should not be allowed. There is a lot of nonsense.

About the attitude towards the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

I believe that Lukashenka is a bandit, that Lukashenka is an executioner, that with, into a state of an absolutely extra-legal society, into an undemocratic society, into an illiberal society. This is a scoundrel, I say this out loud and I hope and I am sure that he will sit in prison and answer for his atrocities, above all for the destruction of his own people.

About harassment

No, I have a very simple attitude to this story. If a person in any area of our life has broken the law, he should be responsible for it.

This is absurd, this is an excuse for their own mediocrity. The more they write, the more those who read must understand - this is an excuse for mediocrity.

As for harassment, if a person comes to work, it is not necessary in the theater, a girl can come to television and say: "Take me to work".

If the leader says to her: “Only through the bed,” as they say, she can complain, she can, and it will be her right, if she does it provably, and does not come up with it. It's okay, so she's right.

But this wave that has come to us from America, for me it is just like you can't call a Negro a Negro, you can't call a lot of things ... Beautiful America is ugly in many ways.

How I overcame oncology

They said: "You have the fourth degree of oncology, you will live one and a half to two months." But I didn’t believe it, I still phoned the very Chubais about whom we were talking, he told me: "Let's run wherever you want, to any country, to any...".

We also have very talented doctors, but nevertheless the next morning I flew to Israel, and there was a doctor who said: “I don’t know anything, but I’ll try”, and I tried. And, scary to say, there is nothing to knock on, 4 years have passed and there are no signs of oncology.