Behind The Curtain: The Making of Moscow Review

Reviewed by Joe Shaver  on  10/20/2002

So you want to make a porn film? Of course you could just set up a camera and photograph two models fucking--as many of the porn directors do, OR you could get really serious about it and aim for something higher. Such as getting a plot, scouting out a location, getting the best looking hunks available, hiring the best cameramen and technicians, and having enough resources and patience to shoot a scene twenty or more times in order to get exactly what you want. The latter is what Kristen Bjorn’s camera man and right-hand man, The Bear, chose to do in his exceptional film “Moscow: The Power of Submission”. It sounds like making a Hollywood film, doesn’t it? And indeed it is.

“Behind the Curtain” is a documentary about the making of this Russian epic. Oh, a documentary, you say unenthusiastically, thinking it will be boring. Well, guess again, Horatio. Even if you are not interested in film making, I’m sure you are interested in seeing magnificent specimens of manhood parading around nude and getting instructions on how to suck and fuck. Interested in seeing them taking huge boners down their semi-virginal throats and up their muscular asses. And interested in seeing how those Bjornian no-hands cum shots are achieved.

Choosing to shoot on location in Russia in the winter was part of this man’s determination to transform mere porn to into art. Having been there myself one December and January, I can testify to the fact that it’s damn cold. So it was no picnic for these guys to stand outside in the bitter cold to film exteriors and transition scenes. Nor was it an easy task for the actors to have to maintain erections for hours on end. (I found it interesting that the actors use pictures in magazines to help them regain their erections instead of using a “fluffer”. I would like to go on record as offering my services free of charge for this position if Sarava Productions is interested.)

Each scene was scheduled for a four-day shoot; and, if you’ve ever been an extra or been associated with the making of a film in any way, you know these are not your eight hour work days. The fact that these scenes take four days also explains why the actors can cum three or four times in the scene.)

We follow the making of the film scene by scene from the four guys opener to the forced sex of the soldier-prisoner in scene two to the blindfolded abduction scene to the romantic conclusion with the film’s most awesome beauties Alexander Byzarov and Slava Petrovitch. The guys are interviewed after each scene, and although they are asked the same questions: “Besides the money what induced you to do this?” “What would your friends think of what you are doing?” “When was the first time you had sex with another man?” the answers they give are thoughtful, varied, and interesting. It enables us to see these guys as people not just as sex objects. The camaraderie of the actors between takes also lets us in on their individual and always charming personalities.

The two stars Byzarov and Petrovitch suggest that they want to continue in the business. Petrovitch speaks of porn as his "career”. He tells us that the first time he had sex with another man was on the set of his previous porn film which wasn’t as well-organized as this one. (Of course it wasn’t, Slava!) Byzarov, the blond Adonis, who now uses “Sasha” (the Russian diminutive of Alexander) knows how to make his looks pay. “There is a man I am attracted to,” he tells us, “but we could not be boyfriends because of my character”. He is then quite candid in telling us, “I like boyfriends who can be my sponsors.” In other words, those who can get him a visa to get out of this cold country or can at least look after his financial needs. (I can’t believe he will have any trouble getting “sponsorship”.) Both have gone on to make films for Lucas Kazan (one of which “Out in Tuscany” is another Sarava Production; and Sasha has also made a film with Michel Lucas “To Moscow with Love 2”.

“Behind the Curtain” is not then just a companion piece to “Moscow: The Power of Submission. (If you don’t have “Moscow” you will definitely walk through the snows of Moscow to get it now.) “Behind the Curtain” is a necessary item for anyone who wants to know how great porn is made or for those who just want to admire the male physique at its utmost perfection. This film explains why films from Kristen Bjorn or his complementary Sarava Productions are the standard by which all gay porn is measured—and why the vast majority of them come up lacking. Art is hard work. This is Art.