Sergey Fetisov might have been just another footnote in human history had his memoir The Story of Roman not fallen into the creative hands of writer-director Peeter Rebane and writer-star Tom Prior (The Theory of Everything). His chronicle of serving in the Russian military in Estonia during the height of the 1970s Cold War and falling into a love triangle with fighter pilot Roman Medveyev (Oleg Zagorodnii) and best friend Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) serves as the backdrop to a provocative study of love, self-acceptance, betrayal and social mores.

One of the premiere narrative showcases at Outfest 2021, Firebird reveals itself to be quite contemporary in its examination of the social and political barriers that continually hamper the LGBTQ+ community. In light of the harsh legal persecutions that have recently arisen in areas that were once part of the Soviet Union, the film is a keen reminder that acceptance is sadly still far from a fait accompli. But Rebane and Prior have not made a political movie; instead, choosing to center on the power of love and its possibilities.

While you have made a very traditional love story, your protagonists are not as cinematically mainstream as we have previously been conditioned to. How important is representation like this?

PRIOR: I think that it’s a story that hasn’t really been told in such a background before. I first came across the story and said this is something that is very original and something very true and also very universal in the quality of what it sort of means to love and be loved particularly in an environment that is not conducive to that type of love. It’s been honestly fascinating to sort of seeing and research a period of time in which, particularly someone from the West, to experience the Soviet Union and all the intricacies of that world and that military world and then blend that in with a type of friendship into something else, into something more of quality and interaction, which also bonds into a love triangle. It’s certainly quite a combination of curious different elements.

Many stories tell us at the beginning that what we are about to see is based on a true story. What is unique is that in crafting your screenplay, you had the luxury to sit down with the real Sergey to flesh out story details. How beneficial did that prove to your process?

REBANE: Well for me as the director, it really informed a lot of choices. Obviously when we were writing the script – me and Tom, we based pretty much the whole story on his original autobiography. But to be able to ask questions like what was your favorite food and which kind of music do you both listen to and which plays did they go to see and all these little details really informed the setting and the way I think this film came out with the authenticity of the story.

PRIOR: I think meeting Sergey as well, meeting someone in real life versus a piece of work that you created, he really was like this sort of tour-de-force of love and passion and of being in love with life. And so, really for me, that was the central research actually to be able to bring that quality to Sergey’s character in the film.

What kind of man did you meet?

PRIOR: Well, there was a really strong sunniness to him, this kind of radiance, which was just like, this unstoppable way of being. We were in a restaurant, like in a suburb of Moscow with him at one point and he was openly flirting with a male waiter. And in this environment, you are like wow, okay, this is pretty courageous, even in this day and age, once these anti-humanistic laws are being brought back as well. Because this was after the laws that were introduced back in 2013. He really was quite relentless in being true to who he was and that’s the quality that I really brought to Sergey, both in the writing and in the acting was that when Roman sort of unlocks let’s say and they meet and this sort of progression begins to happen, Sergey begins to really follow his heart and wear his heart more on his sleeve and follow his dreams and sort of make the impossible possible. So that was really the qualities that I took.

Peeter, you are shooting a period piece in a location that often doesn’t get to be showcased in movies. How cooperative was the local military in allowing you access?

REBANE: Well, we did get full cooperation from the Estonia Military, which was cool, so our actors could go and be trained in boot camp for a few days and really get a feeling of what it means to be in the Army. But you are right, fortunately, there is no more Soviet Military presence in Estonia. What we did, we had a lot of people on the set who actually were in the Soviet Military, for example, the scene where the Commander and Sergey walk into the underground bunker, the air command center, the officer jumps up and salutes them, he is played by a real officer who actually worked in the 80s in a similar center. He would actually train our actors on how to operate the radars, how to draw the planes on the blackboard, all of these little details. We had a consultant, a retired air force base commander, a Soviet air force base commander, like several different people who really helped us to make sure that what we are portraying is as true to life as possible.

Sergey has this youthful abandonment while Roman is much more practical in his approach. How does that imbalance actually favor their relationship?

PRIOR: That’s a really good question. I think the kind of qualities in which Roman and Sergey saw in each other sort of do, and compliment and fit those places where the other one is a little bit emptier for example. Sergey really was somebody and, in the film, as well who does kind of follow his dreams and follow his heart whereas Roman is much more adherent to the system and adherent to the surroundings and obviously that leads to the decisions which are made in the film, without spoiling anything. But he’s sort of like to the duty and Sergey is the duty to his heart. So, it was really fun to play that with Oleg and that different realms and settings and to be able to be playful.