Entertainment, liveliness of writing and wit are not exactly the properties that we by default expect from a book entitled “Primer”. It would be intelligible and useful, and thank you for that. However, Alexander Molchanov’s “Screenwriter’s Primer” is a rare exception to this rule: intelligible, convenient and utilitarian in a good way, it will at the same time serve as an amazingly pleasant, witty and fascinating read, including for those who, even in their most ambitious dreams, would not sees himself in the role of a screenwriter, springily walking along the red carpet towards a well-deserved award. Alexander Molchanov’s book is a convenient tutorial on writing scripts for those who need it, and a fascinating anatomy of cinema for everyone else. (Galina Yuzefovich)NB: - video supplement to the book.The text of the book was translated from the original language using an artificial intelligence program. For the most part, the translation of the text is of very high quality, but in some cases, due to the imperfection of the technology, there may be incorrect phrase translations in the text, as well as single words and expressions may not be translated.