The filmmaker talks about his inadvertent path into making a movie, his collaboration with set designer and eventual subject Fedor Alexandrovich, the peril of filming during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the equally fraught time spent in the editing room:
http://moveablefest.com/moveable_fest/2015/11/chad-gracia-russian-woodpecker.html
Thank you for posting the link to this interview. The director, Chad Gracia, has some amazing things to say about the film's origins, production, editing, etc.
I don't understand the author's statement at the beginning of the linked article, though:
"Alexandrovich?s theory that the radar is still being used, despite its appearance as a long defunct apparatus collecting rust, serves as the basis for Gracia?s film..."
That's not the basis of the film at all, and the interview (assumed to be done by the same author) precisely outlines what the basis of the film is-- that being Feydor and his life's past and future as it connects all the other dots together. Anyway, not a big deal, just strange to see that remark since the this is such an amazing movie and its theme(s) shouldn't be misunderstood by prospective viewers.