‘Idiotka’ Director Nastasya Popov Mined the Drama of Fashion Reality TV

While New Yorkers braced themselves for an unusually cold winter, writer-director Nastasya Popov was embracing the chill. 

“ Winter fashion is cool. I like wearing my vintage fur,” says the L.A.-based Popov, in New York earlier this month for the premiere of her first feature film “Idiotka.” 

The film is getting released almost a year after its world debut at South by Southwest. A few months after its festival premiere, the film was acquired for distribution by Utopia, cofounded by Robert Schwartzman.

“We had this great showing at South By, the audience was laughing, they loved it,” says Popov. “To even get distribution in this landscape, I feel really grateful. We always just really wanted to make a movie that was for the masses and was poppy and quick and exciting and fresh.”

Inspired by Popov’s own life, the film hinges around Margarita, a young fashion design student living at home with her multigenerational Russian expat family. Margarita gets cast on a design competition show, in the style of “Project Runway” and “Making the Cut,” and is prompted to mine her family’s trauma for screen time. 

“I say it’s semi-autobiographical,” says Popov, who moved back home with her own family in order to make her first feature film at the same time that her sister was starting her own fashion label. “My sister and I were just sort of taking that like leap of faith on ourselves at the same time,” she adds. “I was in this pressure cooker situation under the same roof with my elders, and I thought a lot of good humor came out of that.” 

The film is dedicated in memory of Popov’s late grandmother, who inspired one of the film’s memorable characters. “My grandmother was this gorgeous icon. I really wanted to immortalize her in this movie,” says Popov.

The writer-director looked to reality shows from “The Hype” to “The Kardashians” as inspiration.

“I was really interested in exploring themes of putting your personal life on display, and then it just clicked — oh, of course, fashion designer reality show — and now we can bring in all these kooky L.A. characters as well,” she says. “It’s a combination of so many things. It’s an immigrant story. It’s a fashion movie. It’s a satire about reality TV.”

“Reality TV is obviously a highly entertaining format,” she continues. “In these five years that I’ve been working on this movie, it’s become even more natural to all of us. We’re essentially each living in our own reality show as each of us has our personal brand. In cinema you have the option to show the interiority, the other side of it, how we all feel when our phones are off. That vulnerability of, wait, what the hell did I just like say in front of an audience?”

The film stars actress Anna Baryshnikov in her first lead feature role. The actress got involved early on in the process, after a mutual friend shared a copy of the script. 

“We actually went to the same college but never knew each other,” says Popov of Baryshnikov. “She comes from a similar background from me; her dad [Mikhail Baryshnikov] also immigrated from the former Soviet Union, as did my parents.”

“We could talk for hours about those themes and the culture clash we were exploring. And so she really helped me make this movie much richer, but also funnier,” Popov says. “When we shot the sizzle reel with her, her comedic timing was so good that I essentially rewrote the whole script after we shot that. She’s really been along for this journey.”

The buzzy supporting cast includes Camila Mendes, Benito Skinner, Julia Fox and Owen Thiele. “It feels great that our cast is all on the rise,” says Popov.

Popov grew up in L.A., where the film is based, and went on to major in film and creative nonfiction at Northwestern University. 

“I think that often immigrant parents are like, ‘be a doctor, a lawyer, because we want you to have a real job.’ And so I’m just really lucky that my parents encouraged me to follow my creative instincts. And I think just by growing up around friends whose parents were in the industry, it became clear to me that there is a real career behind the camera.”

With her first feature film out in the world, Popov is looking ahead to her next project. She’s currently writing a romantic comedy, while developing other comedy and TV concepts. 

“I hope and plan to keep writing comedies, and hopefully make them bigger and bigger. I think we need to laugh.  I think strong female characters, when well written, and funny, can be the best thing ever,” she adds. “We made an ensemble comedy in L.A. with barely any budget. So I just feel very excited for what’s to come.”