Today award-winning director Ilya Naishuller, represented by Great Guns, releases music video, ‘JuJu’, for Russian rock band, Leningrad.  Last year, Naishuller collected an enviable list of awards for the band’s music video for ‘Kolshik’ including two Cannes Lions, two D&AD Pencils and a One Show Pencil.

The latest heart-racing promo sees Naishuller turn his hand to animation. Working with Gluk’oza Animation and HONK FU Studio in Russia, the film crafts a story of good and bad Juju in a fictional future. Bloody, jealous battles ensue to gain control over wealth as the expressive anime characters fly across the screen wrapped in epic kung fu-style struggles. A sly twist formulating with one unsuspecting kitty acting as the story’s catalyst.

Commenting on working in animation, Director, Ilya Naishuller says: "I've never had the chance to direct animation but have always wanted to. I jumped at the opportunity to expand my horizons on this project. The freedom that animation gives you is incredibly exciting. I decided to stay away from just going crazy with the 'camera' though and boarded it like I would have done if I was shooting live action. I didn’t want to lose that ‘filmic’ quality and wanted to be able to tell a fairly complex story as clearly as I possibly could."  

His third video for the band, Naishuller had creative freedom from Leningrad’s frontman Sergei Snurov. Having a clear intention to avoid illustrating the lyrics, Naishuller explains the film’s narrative rotates around an overarching theme of jealousy:

"It’s great to work with such collaborative musical artists who trust me to let loose on the creative. The song is a humorous deconstruction of everyday jealousy, so I based the script on the same premise. However, as I always tend to do, I stayed the hell away from illustrating lyrics instead I worked within their themes. I had an absolute blast working with and learning from the very talented and driven animation team when it came to bringing it to life." 

The video launched on Leningrad’s YouTube on 18th May 2018