What if your art school degree led you to... directing adult films with actual cinematography?
A rather unlucky young theater director finds himself without work and means of subsistence. To somehow make ends meet, on the advice of a friend, he decides to become a director of pornographic films, using creativity and psychological aspects in his work.
Direction
Segal treats sleaze with unexpected visual poetry and deadpan precision.
Writing
Dialogue that weaponizes Russian intellectual pretension against itself.
Acting
Pal's dead-eyed desperation masks genuine wounded pride.
Director
Mikhail Segal
Aleksandr Pal
Roman
Lyubov Aksyonova
Lera
Oleg Gaas
Timur
Igor Ugolnikov
president
Igor Vernik
cultural adviser
Semyon Treskunov
guide
Ekaterina Sokolova
Ira
Denis Vasilev
Andrey, director
Sergey Burunov
Vladimir, leading
Anton Lapenko
Khachatryan
Stepan Devonin
Nikita, director of photography
Elena Korotkova
Lena, administrator
Vladimir Simonov
actor
Sergey Abroskin
coachman
Konstantin Novikov
clerk
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during pandemic-era Russia, the film's portrait of creative unemployment hit uncomfortably close to home for Moscow's artistic class. Segal himself came from advertising, lending Roman's corporate-film background specific authenticity.
The title 'Deeper!' works triple-duty: industry command, existential plea, and ironic distance. Pal and Aksyonova reportedly improvised several excruciating audition scenes, with real industry veterans mixed among actors.
RU
