Nikita Kopytin interview
Interview by: David Soda
How much does a watermelon cost in Moscow?
I haven’t been to Moscow in a long time, so I’m unfamiliar with today’s prices for exotic plants. I asked my girlfriend, who was recently in Moscow, but she’s not much of a watermelon consumer so she doesn’t know either. I could inquire further but this is just the first question so it might be wise to move on.
The surfaces we skate on in the film vary but which one left the biggest impression on you?
The wet ground left the biggest impression, or rather, trauma. In Slovenia, we skated under such conditions almost the entire time. It was a big struggle for every trick we managed to land. The biggest psychological pressure came from knowing that every failed attempt took us further away from a made trick. The surface kept losing its hardness with each contact from the wheels.
The idea of nature is constantly present, especially throughout modern Russian cinema history.
If we’re talking about Andrei Tarkovsky, I must admit I avoid his films. Some directors are so significant that I’m afraid to approach their work. Fun fact – Alfred Hitchcock is one of those for me. I did watch Stalker but very early on so I barely remember anything.
Does your work carry inspiration from the cinematic legacy of Russia?
For the most part, I wouldn’t say more than the cinematic legacy of other cultures. In certain areas, films by Russian directors have had a significant impact on me. For example the film Hush by Viktor Kossakovsky. That cinematic language is very close to me, and I felt filled up with confidence that I could create whatever I wanted in any way I chose.
What is it that you feel in the Balkan? What drew you to stay here and plant your seed with this film?
I feel at home. Balkan culture is a part of me. I didn’t choose it, it just happened when I moved with my parents to Herceg Novi when I was 9 years old. I lived there until I was 14. That time is an important period for forming one’s personality and of course, the environment had a significant influence on it. Both in good and bad ways. Still, I’m very happy it happened and that I have another homeland on this globe.
This is my country just as Russia once was. That Russia no longer exists. But Montenegro exists. Here I feel a sense of security I haven’t felt in a long time. Freedom in many aspects of life, in creativity as well. I need to be here and do something valuable for Montenegrin culture, but not only for culture. I hope this film is just the beginning. I don’t know, maybe it’s an outlet for the patriotism I can no longer feel for Russia.
For most people, nature is a medicine. Your tool for connecting with it is a skateboard, but how would you help a random city passerby engage with it and step out of the daily grind?
I don’t want to promote anything. People are different and nature isn’t a panacea for everyone. For some the daily grind is the only way to get through life. Whatever helps. If a passerby approached me and asked, I would speak only from my own experience that being alone is one of the most important rituals in life. Being alone in the city isn’t easy; so much is happening around you and you’re part of a big organism. People are often afraid to be alone with themselves because they don’t know themselves. Most people are already accustomed to feeling sadness and frustration when they’re alone. Being alone in nature is much more natural. If someone asked me I’d recommend that experience. The longer the better. It will most likely change your perspective on yourself, life, and your needs. Why take ayahuasca if you have a weekend cottage? 😉
You said that the city creates and solves the individual needs of a person. Do you think nature creates and solves the same?
Definitely, nature also creates needs that are specific to it and which either don’t need solutions or are already solved for you in the city. But in nature, you can live entirely autonomously from most social and political processes that you can’t avoid in the city. These processes generate an endless number of needs which in my opinion are mostly pointless. I’ve spent most of my life in metropolises and I think I’ve extracted everything I could from them. Without the urban experience, I wouldn’t come to this realization. I completely understand people who were born and raised in rural areas and find that environment dead. It’s all complex. And again, what I’m talking about only applies to me.
Do you think growing up in nature is different?
I’m 100% sure it’s different but I don’t know what its like when you spend your entire life in nature. Because again, I already knew what McDonald’s, Nike, MTV, porn, millions of people, very rich and very poor people, 30-story buildings, the metro, etc., were when I moved to Montenegro. Maybe I’ll feel that difference with my child but I don’t have any radical plans for them to grow up like Mowgli. I believe a person has to learn and see as much as possible to make meaningful decisions for their life.
As keen observers of the global skate scene, and witnesses to its current decline where quantity exceeds quality, do you think nature could become mainstream and could seeds like these change things for the better?
What attracts me the most in any discipline is experimentation. The unknown is fun and this also applies to skateboarding. I’m not sure nature can become mainstream; it’s definitely not suitable for everyday skating. I would love to see other skaters, even professionals, skating in nature. I can imagine a tour from some major brand through the Amazon jungle or the Norwegian fjords. The more skateboarding moves toward being a sterile sport the stronger the fight from the alternative scene becomes. I hope we’ll still see a lot.
You live on mountain Tara in Montenegro, how does that life compare to the city, specifically Moscow?
I live in the canyon of the Tara River. Truly in the wild, I don’t even have neighbors. I feel the best I ever have here. If I’m missing something – five hours by train and I’m in Belgrade. But most of the time, I don’t miss anything. I’ve completely stopped accepting the city way of life. When I come to Belgrade and stand at a traffic light waiting for the green to cross the street, I feel really stupid. Why the hell do I have to wait to cross the street? From a certain perspective, it’s quite funny. We’ll see how it goes in the canyon when winter comes. It probably won’t be easy, nature will create needs and I’ll have to find solutions, haha. But I think I’m ready.
They say moving is one of the most stressful processes for a person. How did you handle it?
For me, it was much easier than for most of my friends, and certainly for Ukrainians and Russians in general. I left Russia in 2019, and even then I was at risk. When the war started I had already been living in Tbilisi, Georgia, for almost three years. Before that I traveled a lot, constantly changing countries and cities. It’s more or less a natural process for me if we don’t consider the reason why it happened the last time. If we do consider that – that war and all the socio-political processes around it mentally destroyed me. I was seriously messed up and had lost all faith in people. Nature was certainly the cure for me.
What are your future plans, regarding your life as well as your skateboard?
If everything goes according to plan, and winter in northern Montenegro proves bearable, I’ll buy land near the river by spring. Probably with a small house. I feel like this is my place. I want to build a DIY spot on the land so people can come, relax in nature, and skate. I also want Montenegro to get its first state-funded skatepark. I’ll start working on this right after the film premiere. I also have some ideas for things I want to film.