Starting as a crazy idea, the story of Yuri's Omen came to life in an early morning conversation with executive producer & co-writer Sergi Marí. I have been interested in the Chernobyl accident since my childhood, and I had just read the graphic novel "Chernobyl, The Zone" by Natacha Bustos & Francisco Sánchez. We were just wondering if it would be possible to tell a story taking place in the "Forbidden Zone" just using our limited resources. Both of us knew about some abandoned military buildings that had fallen in disrepair near our home city, Lleida. Only a week after this first conversation, we were already scouting locations.
With only this simple idea, we started writing the script. Using some inspiration from the aforementioned graphic novel, and some classic soviet movies like Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece "Stalker", we developed a story dealing with subjects like family's curses, the impact of 20th century history in the lives of the common people.
In the preproduction phase, I had the priceless help of the producers' team of Marc Pascual and Pilar M. Alaez. Both of them, along with Sergi, did a wonderful job bringing together the resources needed for the realization of the project. From the atrezzo used by the art department to the camera equipment, they were able to have all the stuff in time and at an affordable cost.
Once we entered the postproduction phase, a lot of effort was devoted to obtain the distinctive visual look. Javier Rueda, both as Director of Photography and Editor, worked very hard shot by shot, achieving the grim look of the forbidden zone. Also, Jonathan Guillén and Jolanta Norbutaite worked in the FX department bringing digital backgrounds to life, with wonderful results.
Now, after so much effort, we finally have our work ready. I hope that the public will enjoy the shortfilm as much as we have enjoyed doing it.
Biography
Director / Writer / Executive Producer
While Sergi Marí he has a degree in Computing, Jordi has written and directed short stories for over fifteen years now. With the experience gained with music videos and short and medium length films, Yuri's Omen is one of his biggest and most personal projects so far, where he has been able to include aspects of the Russian culture he so much admires. He is currently finishing post-production of his new work, titled "After the dream".