“…a touch­ing, beau­ti­fully drawn Kiwi film … well worth hunt­ing out.”
Sun­day Star Times **** 12/6/11

This Thurs­day (16 June), the first fea­ture film directed by Stephen Sin­clair – cel­e­brated NZ screen­writer (The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Tow­ers, Brain­dead, Meet the Fee­bles) and play­wright (Ladies Night, The Bach, The Bell­bird) – will be released in cin­e­mas nationwide.

Russ­ian Snark – which Sin­clair wrote as well as directed, and was pro­duced by Liz DiFiore (Ana­con­das, The Amaz­ing Race) – was inspired by the true life expe­ri­ence of a Russ­ian cou­ple who sailed to New Zealand in a tiny con­verted lifeboat in 1998.

Hav­ing reached God­zone, Russ­ian film­maker Misha (played by Stephen Papps – The End of the Golden Weather, Blow­ing It, Her­cules: The Leg­endary Jour­neys) strug­gles to fur­ther his career, which puts pres­sure on both his mar­riage to Nadia (Elena Ste­jko – Short­land Street, Mercy Peak) and his men­tal health, until the timely inter­ven­tion of a young Poly­ne­sian neigh­bour (Stephanie Taue­vihi – Short­land Street) saves him from him­self and his obsessions.

The film poses the ques­tion, is it bet­ter to be a great artist or a good man?

Despite its poten­tially weighty sub­ject, Russ­ian Snark is “not a dour drama about the ‘tor­tured artist’,” says Sin­clair. “It’s a hybrid beast that I guess you could call an eccen­tric comedy-drama-art movie. My aim was to cre­ate some­thing both thought-provoking and entertaining.”

Based on the film’s suc­cess so far, it seems he’s suc­ceeded. After debut­ing at last year’s New Zealand Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val, Russ­ian Snark was nom­i­nated in all major cat­e­gories at the 2010 Qan­tas New Zealand Film & TV Awards, with Taue­vihi win­ning the award for best sup­port­ing actress.

Since then it’s screened at four over­seas film fes­ti­vals, win­ning Best Inter­na­tional Film at the Gar­den State Film Fes­ti­val (US) in April.

“I’m thrilled at the response it’s received so far, both here and over­seas, and that wider audi­ences in New Zealand finally have a chance to see it,” says Sinclair.

Russ­ian Snark will screen in over 30 cin­e­mas around New Zealand from 16 June.

ALL MEDIA INQUIRIES, includ­ing requests for the press kit, pho­tos, inter­views with the film­mak­ers, and screen­ers of the movie, please con­tact Nick Grant: nof.grant@gmail.com.