Q&A: 'GUDU SS21' & 'Vytachiv' Director Vova Klever

Taking its inspiration from empty streets and audience-less fashion shows as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vova Klever's GUDU SS21 fashion film showcases Georgian creative director Lasha Mdinaradze's S/S 21 collection for GUDU. Depicted against a stark, seemingly infinite white set, female models rotate in GUDU's sculptural, tailored silhouettes. Aside from showing fashion in motion, the rotating aspect of the film points to the dull, cyclical nature of life under lockdown. Klever's Vytachiv, on the other hand, is a much more sombre film; equally mysterious as it is disturbing, perplexing as it is eerie. Taking inspiration from the films of Tarkovsky, the greyscale fashion film - although ambiguous in its theme - explores the concept of melancholy through an Eastern European lens. Set in the small village of Vytachiv, Ukraine, the film's eerie-ness can be felt from beginning to end; from the haunting music featured to the film's protagonist, a ghostly figure dressed in all black, visually mirroring Ingmar Bergman's character, Death, in The Seventh Seal (1957).

SHOWstudio: How did you first get into filmmaking?

Vova Klever: It's hard to say when and why I got into filmmaking, but I can say that I've been a big fan of the film industry since I was a kid. For me, movies are a different world where you can live. Moreover, I am a dreamer, and I remember how I fell in love with Hermione Jean Granger during all the parts of Harry Potter. For me, it was real, you know. That's why it is so interesting and important to me to create, because you can do whatever you want: you can build a whole universe where magic can happen, you feel me? So, one of my big dreams is to make my own movie which people can see in the cinema.

SS: How did you come up with the idea for GUDU SS21?

VK: During that time I was an art director at GUDU. I was working a lot with the creative director of the brand — Lasha Mdinaradze. Moreover, we had that type of synergy when you understand each other with no words, so we came up with the idea together. We wanted it to be so clean and clear. Lasha did an amazing collection, and we wanted people to focus only on the clothes, nothing more. Just that – simple.

SS: Why did you want the models to be rotating, and why choose such a white, empty set?

VK: The idea of such a white and empty set connects with the COVID-19 pandemic. No people at the shows, no people on the streets, total lockdown, the whole emptiness where you cannot see a bright future. It is like infinity, where everything is white. No beginning, no end. About rotating — it's so simple – that way people can see all the materials and whole look of the collection.

SS: What do you like about working with GUDU?

VK: The freedom. The ideas which became a reality. The courage of what we are doing and how we communicate in visuals aesthetics.

SS: How did you come up with the idea for Vytachiv?

VK: Vytachiv is a very special project to me. Moreover, I believe that it is my best work. The idea came up after my trip to the place with my friend Maria. It was my third time there, and I thought that Vytachiv is a very mysterious place full of melancholy - this broken christ on the church, a black cat walking, a dark sky looming - and the phenomena of mystery is very common in Ukrainian culture. I remember walking around that day even now; the sky was full of smoke because of fire from Chernobyl. So, at that moment, I realised that I wanted to portray all of these feelings and emotions, resulting in the short film Vytachiv and the audio and visual experience that comes when watching it.

SS: What would you say Vytachiv is a visual reflection of?

VK: The film itself is an emotional reflection of my feelings, felt when I was in Vytachiv. It was interesting for me to show my emotional condition via music and moving visuals.

SS: What was your main inspiration for the film?

VK: The visual inspiration for the film mainly came from all the work of Tarkovsky — a favourite film director of mine. The idea came up during the COVID-19 lockdown after watching all his films and falling in love with his vision. The mental came from my trip to Vytachiv.