 He also refused help from Nick Park's company Aardman Animations, accepting from them only a few boxes of lightbulbs.Production came to a temporary halt on November 17, 1999 with the death of cinematographer Aleksandr Zhukovskiy (Александр Жуковский).The loss was crippling for Yuriy Norstein — he said of Zhukovskiy that he was the only person who ever saw exactly eye-to-eye with him both as an artist and as a friend.