THE FILM

Brought to you from a multi award winning team with cinematography by world renowned Mikhail Krichman (Silent Souls, Miss Julie), The Ruby Lion is the story of not only the unresolved conflict between a father and son, but the purification of ones soul in purgatory. 

'Having never lost a game of pool in over twenty years, a retired world 9-Ball Champion, Reuben "Ruby Howard" finally faces a worthy opponent. But the eerily persistent challenger confronts the legends love for the game, resulting in the ultimate sacrifice.'

WHAT YOUR SUPPORT MEANS

Though we have raised our production budget for The Ruby Lion, to avoid delay in post production, we need your help to get our film completed and begin its festival journey in 2022. We believe in this project, which has so far attracted an incredible cast and crew including world renowned cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, Actor Adrian McLoughlin (Josef Stalin in 'DEATH OF STALIN') with another exciting casting announcement to be announced soon. Come and join us on this exciting journey, and support independent film!

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

THE TEAM

Director - Dmitry Lesnevskiy JR.

Dmitry Lesnevskiy JR. is a film director, a 2020 NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate. Dmitry has directed numerous short films, music videos, commercials and documentaries throughout his time at NYU. His short, Turnaround, has won awards at four film festivals, including “Best Overall Film” at Chicago Film Festival’s subsidiary, CineYouth. In 2020, Dmitry was Executive Producer on a Student Academy Award nominated short film, To The Girl That Looks Like Me, which went on to win numerous other awards. Dmitry is also set to direct Run(a)way, a TV Series currently in developement, produced by Asacha Media Group, and co-produced by HBO's Euphoria executive producer, Ron Leshem.

You can see Dmitry's award winning film Turnaround here.

Cinematographer - Mikhail Krichman

Mikhail Krichman is a Russian-based Director of Photography. Some of his work includes The Return (2003) which received two ‘Golden Lions’ at the 60th Venice Film Festival, Silent Souls (2010) which received a ‘Golden Ostella’ at the 67th Venice Film Festival, and Leviathan (2014), which won ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and received an Academy Award Nomination. In 2017, Mikhail shot "Loveless", which also went on to be nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Mikhail also received Nika Awards and Golden Eagle Awards for best cinematography in 2004, 2011 and 2012, as well as the European Film Award for Best Cinematographer in 2017.

Writer - Alex Lesnevskiy

Alex is an actor/ screenwriter, who recently graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. His acting work includes lead roles in theatre productions of The Weir, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo & Juliet, The Glass Menagerie, American Tragedy: The Story of Clyde Griffiths, The World’s Most Boring Murder, among others. From 2017-2020, Alex toured with Stanislavskiy Moscow Art Theatre's troupe of actors around Russia, starring in Carlo Goldoni's One Man, Two Governors, and Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. He was awarded the "Outstanding Achievement" award by the Moscow Art Theatre Committee. Alex is currently co-writing Run(a)way, an upcoming TV Series produced by Asacha Media Group and co-produced by HBO Euphoria's Ron Leshem.

THE PRODUCERS

Simon Alexander is an actor turned producer and founder of Take A Look Pictures, an independent film company focused on telling stories on underrepresented demographics in film. His first produced work, the micro budget short film 'A Place To Lay Your Head' was selected for 8 festivals globally winning Best Horror at the cult film festival New Film Fest LA. In May, he completed his second short, the meta horror 'She Opens Her Eyes' directed by award winning director Christopher Ian Smith, and his third produced short 'Cwtch' begins filming in January. Simon was recently accepted onto the BFI & Independent Cinema producer/director collab event which is for successful applicants only and has several projects in development in both feature and serial form. He was also a jury member for this years SuperShorts film festival which runs in London, LA and New York.

Sıdal Ergüder is a producer, film director, and founder of Zero State Productions LTD. based in London. She studied Journalism at Marmara University and completed a Masters’s in Filmmaking in Barcelona. Her projects have been published in international magazines and she has prepared exhibitions in the U.K., E.U., South Korea, and Latin America. She approaches filmmaking from an artist’s perspective, incorporating her knowledge of journalism, art, music, and photography, all coupled with an obsessive creative inquisitiveness. Ergüder’s narrative work is freely infused with many of these experimental elements. She is always seeking alternatives to the linearity of narrative construction. In this realm whether experimental or narrative conjoined story fragments challenge the viewer to form a narrative linkage.