Interview | "When Truth Becomes a Crime": Alexander Molochnikov on Telling Sasha Skochilenko’s Story

"When Truth Becomes a Crime": Alexander Molochnikov on Telling Sasha Skochilenko’s Story

By Ricardo Sánchez Mejorada

 

In this conversation with Ricardo Sánchez Mejorada from El Cinéfilo Latino, director Alexander Molochnikov reflects on the origins of Extremist, a film inspired by the real-life case of Sasha Skochilenko, whose quiet act of protest—replacing grocery store price tags with truthful information—led to a harsh prison sentence. Speaking about artistic freedom, political repression, and the human power of small gestures, Molochnikov discusses the responsibility of transforming lived trauma into narrative cinema, the limits of control within authoritarian systems, and why stories like Sasha’s continue to resonate far beyond their place of origin.

 

EL CINÉFILO LATINO: Alexander, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us, especially at a moment when we imagine you have very little free time.

ALEXANDER MOLOCHNIKOV: We’re kind of, yeah, in the middle of all this craziness with being shortlisted and hopefully getting nominated, so… um, yeah, it is a lot going on.

EL CINÉFILO LATINO: Congrats on that; I know it’s such an accomplishment, and I know it’s just the beginning, I’m pretty, pretty sure. Extremist centers on the story of Sasha Skochilenko, whose protest led to an unjust sentence by the Russian authorities. What was the moment when you realized this specific story needed to be told?

ALEXANDER MOLOCHNIKOV: I read about, surprisingly—not about her case, about her case I read earlier—but I read a little interview with the lady who reported on her. Because of that report, she got sentenced to seven years, and it struck me that she said how they deserved that crazy sentence—seven years for just changing four price tags, which is literally, you know, beyond any comment.

She just changed four little pieces of paper for truthful information about what’s going on in the frontlines and in peaceful Ukrainian cities—how many people got killed in this city or that city. So she replaced price tags for, like, cheese or sausage, or butter or whatever, for these little stickers with that information, and got imprisoned for seven years because of this lady who reported on them when she saw the price tag in the grocery store.

So it struck me that, in the little interview that she gave, she said that, “Yeah, maybe seven years is a little too much, but in general, she thinks the court knows better and that they deserve it.” And I was like, “Wow, ok,” and I really wanted to dig into that story more.

Then we started writing some first drafts of the script and sent it to Sasha’s girlfriend—the protagonist in our film, who did change those price tags—and she, through lawyers, gave those scripts to Sasha in prison, and we got some feedback about it. With all that together, I maybe believed that this film has to be made.

EL CINÉFILO LATINO: What was the feedback that you received?

ALEXANDER MOLOCHNIKOV: There wasn’t much, you know? We never know what people are going through when they’re in a prison cell and how many letters she gets. I remember that one of the comments, which was sort of the fundamental green light for us, was: “You are artist and you should just create the way you feel like creating and get inspired by our story. You will never do it realistically, it’s a narrative film, it’s not a documentary, so it doesn’t have to copy-paste the reality, and it’s probably impossible to copy-paste the reality, but if you get inspired, create your own world as an artist with the team.”

We had an incredible team—a great DP, set designer, production company, and everybody who did so much for this to be created. They kind of greenlighted us to be free in that.

EL CINÉFILO LATINO: Hopefully, this kind of interaction continues in further productions, although I’ve heard that isn’t always the case. The protest at the center of Extremist is almost mundane—paper, words, a grocery store. Why do you think the system responded so violently to gestures that are, on the surface, so small?

ALEXANDER MOLOCHNIKOV: I think it’s a good question. The system in Russia, in general, is awful, and it responds now to any kind of protest—a Facebook comment, a “like” even sometimes; people get arrested for those things, you know? And I feel what Sasha did was so beyond control that they got really annoyed.

As far as I understand—this is my estimation and my perception of these things—they just get really annoyed by anything they can’t control. Anything that’s not in the system, even if it’s really small. What she did is such a hack of the system; nobody would think that—to change price tags in a grocery store. It’s not a post, it’s not a TV show, a speech. It’s such a small action, but it gets right in front of some random people, so it’s uncontrollable. What if that turns into a flash mob?

I don’t want to think like the police and litter my brain with those thoughts, but I think this is the direction they were going.

EL CINÉFILO LATINO: It’s always so shocking when you don’t expect something to have that much of an impact, right? It starts at a very local level, and suddenly it becomes part of a much larger shift affecting people on a massive scale, doesn’t it?

ALEXANDER MOLOCHNIKOV: Yeah. By the way, talking to the Mexican audience, I would mention that you probably know there is a lot of Russians in Mexico. A lot of people who came in these few years when the war started, running away from the regime for that reason or the other. Many people who are trying to cross the border to US, trying to do it through the CBP One program, and thanks to Mexico they don’t have complicated visas for Russians, but still, it’s hell at the border because many people who were hoping to get a refuge, asylum—is that called that?—in the US and actually were given a chance for that because the CBP One Program did work for multiple months, people would quickly get it if they actually had a reason.

If they were part of the LGBT community, which is getting under horrible pressure in Russia; if they were, you know, being prosecuted for being on a protest in Russia or just posting something and they understood that they’d get imprisoned, they ran away, went into Mexico, trying to get into the US, and sadly got turned around on the border, or, which is much worse—and those cases are often—would go for a year or more into those detention centers, where running away from being imprisoned in Russia, and they would get imprisoned in the US. And some of them, which is most tragic, would be, at the end of that hell, deported back to Russia, where, you know, hell knows what is waiting for them.

Those stories are extremely tragic, and actually I do want to film post—this is an exclusive—in my next work for these people, who are one of the stories connected to this Mexican border. And I hope maybe people wouldn’t want to go through Mexico to the US, but would want to just come to Mexico and become great Mexican citizens who would be helpful for Mexico, because many of those people who run away, they’re educated, very capable of working, full of energy, because that’s the most sort of intellectual class in Russia who are just trying to escape prison or escape fighting in this horrible, unjust, disgusting war.

People who are political prisoners in Russia today, people who are running away from Russia today—you can never talk for all of them—but many of them could just be so helpful to both the US and Mexico, I think… to any country, because they really are usually very brave people who had courage not to continue living in comfort in a country and shutting up, but felt that they should speak out that what is surrounding them is horrible and flee… or get imprisoned, like Sasha, who is an absolute hero of our time.

EL CINÉFILO LATINO: We also noticed that during the trials, Sasha did a heart symbol with her hands. I really wanted to ask you, does this have an additional meaning or was it just a fortuitous result?

ALEXANDER MOLOCHNIKOV: I feel like it started from Alexei Navalny, who was the biggest Russian oppositioner. His wife was always in his courts, and he would show her this gesture through the glass, which is nothing super original, is something we all do to those we love. But when you see it through the glass or through the bars of a cage where the prisoners are held, it kind of has a very strong image that that person, I guess, has that strength to still love, to still bring kindness to the world, bring joy in some way, although they are going through literal hell themselves. And they want those who love them to feel that they are loved and calm them down this way.

So eventually Sasha also did it, and others did it as well, and they forbid to do that, which is, of course, another Kafkian twist of this crazy story. But we have that also as one of the last subtitles of our film.

EL CINÉFILO LATINO: It’s such a strong message, at least it resonated so deeply with me.  Have you read “My Prison Trip”, the memoir by Alexandra?

ALEXANDER MOLOCHNIKOV: Yes, of course, and some of it I could get as she was imprisoned. Some of it is published now, and yes, I think it’s an incredible document that should be seen by everyone, and the images she does regarding it are very cute and strong at the same time.

Extremist is currently available to watch for free via The New Yorker’s official YouTube channel, offering audiences worldwide the opportunity to engage directly with Sasha Skochilenko’s story. As the film continues its awards and festival journey, it stands as a striking reminder of how small, truthful gestures can resonate far beyond their immediate context—and why stories like this urgently need to be seen.

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]