Actress Chulpan Khamatova on role in Kairišs’ “Uļa” and life between three languages

Russian-born actress Chulpan Khamatova, who currently lives in Latvia, plays the mother of the title character in the upcoming film “Uļa”, inspired by the story of legendary basketball player Uljana Semjonova. In an interview with Delfi before the Latvian premiere, she explained how she joined the project almost by chance.

According to Khamatova, she and Viesturs Kairišs first met when they sat on the jury of the Artdocfest Riga festival, headed by journalist Adam Michnik. The three shared the same view on cinema. Later, while Khamatova was in the United States, Kairišs called and said the situation was urgent. He had planned to use local residents in Old Believer roles but realised they might not cope, so he needed a professional actress for the role of the protagonist’s mother.

Khamatova agreed immediately. Returning to Latvia, she went straight from the airport to the snowy Latgale shooting location. She admits she was tired and unprepared, but the mood on set was contagious – cold and muddy yet filled with happiness and devotion to cinema.

Her current life resembles somersaults between projects and languages. She performs at the Dailes Theatre in Ola Mafalani’s production “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”, in Dmitry Krymov’s “Notes of a Madman” in Russian, and in Boston in Ihor Golyak’s “Delirium” in English. At the same time she is learning a new text in Latvian. When asked how she manages it all, she replied it is simple.

The actress also speaks about faith without miracles, her transition from heroine roles to mothers, and her feelings about war and guilt in front of children. At the start of the conversation she had just stepped away from filming Alexander Molochnikov’s “Extremists”; because the connection was weak, the interview became a voice-only session.