JSA & “THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS” MOVIE

Filmmaker Vasili Pichul has died. R.I.P.
(June 15, 1961 — July 26, 2015).

It is sad news for us. JSA had a positive experience with Vasili and his team on the set of the film “The Sky With Diamonds” (Небо в Алмазах). We have built many original designs from elements of Layher and aluminium trusses. It was an interesting project with a creative atmosphere in working together with the film crew.

Most episodes were filmed at the fountain “Friendship of Peoples” (version by Stalin’s period) at the exhibition center VDNH (ВДНХ) – the symbol of Soviet achievements, but in reality, it was a “bright picture” of the phantom by the USSR. The beginning, the plot moments, and the ending of the movie took place against the background of the constructions of Layher that were built by JSA. Working on such a project was a new and prestigious event for a young company.

Director Vasiliy Pichul is famous to viewers for his movie “Little Vera”, which threw open the doors to a new sexual frankness in Soviet cinematography. And also about the hidden problems of soviet society and the conflict of generations in recent years before the collapse of the communist empire. In 1988, “Little Vera” took the FIPRESCI award at the International Film Festival in Venice (Italy).

Pichul’s last movie with public resonance – “The Sky With Diamonds” was released in October of 1999 and showed the portrait of the new Russia but with the old face.

This post-perestroika movie is about lives in Russia 90s. The film was shot in a phantasmagoric style and tells the story of the deformation personalities of people who emerged from the era of communism and who met real capitalism. The filmmaker at the end of the story showed that Russia has not changed – the people were cogs in the system and stay now also; the Kremlin mutated and put on the attractive mask but inside has stayed the same.

Filming took place in 1998 (in August of this year in Russia there was a deep economic crisis)

Vasiliy Pichul was born on June 15, 1961, in the port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea, Ukraine. Now it is a frontline city in the Donetsk region near the zone activity of the pro-Russian military formations.

The signature of the Director is in the additional list to the letter of cultural figures of the Russian Federation to Putin about the support of the occupation of Crimea. But in our opinion, this was some unexpected and strange action of a person a year before death from lung cancer.

The views of critics and fans of the creation by the director may not coincide with our position.