Don’t decipher love (2016) emerged out of Lukachevskii’s longstanding friendship with the singer Pavel Semenov, brother to the film’s subject, Stepan Semenov. Stepan Semenov rose to fame as the lead singer of the rock band Ai Tal, at the vanguard of the experimental music scene that became a key form of Sakha expression during the late 1980s and early 1990s (Peers, Ventsel and Sidorova 2020; Ventsel 2004, 2009). But his life was cut short: he died in March 1992 at the age of 28, ten days after the birth of his daughter, the singer Sajsary Kharitonova, or Sajsary Kuo. He had suffered constant ill health since a childhood accident. Pavel and the other Semenov siblings recounted their brother’s life story during Lukachevskii’s visit to their home village in Viliui region. Lukachevskii was fascinated by Semenov’s story, and in particular was caught by the words of one of Semenov’s songs—the song that eventually would provide the film’s title, Don’t decipher love, or Taajymang Taptaly in Sakha. He decided to make a documentary about Semenov that would focus on Kharitonova’s performance of this song.
