That kind of poetics and point of view proved congenial to Balabanov: the writer and the filmmaker both describe zero societies existing before (Sieroszewski) or after (Balabanov) civilisation.
In her article written for Séance magazine Elena Plakhova talks about the superficial and in-depth convergence in the works of Alexei Balabanov and Lars von Trier—revanchism, provocation and radical gestures of both directors.
Alexei Balabanov started a diary while he was a third year student, that is, in late 1970s. He kept it until the early 2000s: the last entrances were made in 2002, the year Sergei Bodrov Jr. and his filming crew perished in the Karmadon ravine. The notes from 1980 to 1986 belong to a very young man—at that time Balabanov served in the army, traveled to the far-away Yemen as an interpretor and was dreaming of becoming a VGIK student.
Fragments from diaries were publicly presented for the first time at an exhibition during the First Alexei Balabanov’s Conference in 2015.