The director Sergey Korotaev, the general producer Timur Vaynshteyn, the actors Vladimir Mashkov and Vladislav Miller and the actress Alena Morilova presented the film His Name Was Not Listed, which became the opening film of the 47th Moscow International Film Festival.
This history film about courage, faith and love of homeland is based on the eponymous novel by Boris Vasilyev. On June 21, 1941 the young lieutenant Kolya Pluzhnikov, having received a permanent service appointment, arrives in Brest. Crowded waiting rooms of the railway station and the crowd of people carrying luggage do not alarm the young man who is full of happy hopes. Kolya hurries to the location of his unit, in Brest Fortress... There is no time for him to be enlisted to the military personnel and artillery strikes are heard at 4 am: the war has started...
Timur Vaynshteyn: "I believe Boris Vasilyev is one of the most outstanding military prose classics. Such films as Dawns Here are Quiet, One Two, Soldiers Were Going, Officers, Tomorrow was the War were made based on his works. It so has happened that there were few projects to cinematize his most brilliant story, His Name Was Not Listed, though it had a huge success in the theatre. Today, many people say that young audiences are not very much interested in war films, that is why it was important for us to tell the story about the heroism of young people and about all young boys who became men so suddenly. It was important for us to show the making of a young man, when he turns into a real man, a Russian soldier.
Vladimir Mashkov: "This is a story of a young lieutenant Kolya Pluzhnikov who finds himself amid those suggested circumstances he is absolutely not ready for. For me, this is another conversation with myself in the run-up to the great holiday, the Victory Day. We tried hard to make the film as honest, emotional and true as possible based on great literature. And I am proud of my guys who could decently make it through the filming and had lived by the rules of 1938 for 10 days, in the fields, fighting in night attacks: through that, they felt this feeling of love of homeland emerging in humans".
Sergey Korotaev: "We used "outbreaks of war" as a language in this film, as our character finds himself in the circumstances he is not ready for, he blacks out in first hours of the war and does not understand what is happening, he only has basic training, but he has to organize defense. The walls of Brest Fortress are full of memorial plaques and the average age of the kids killed there is 21. The story itself gave us the visual stylistics of the film: we selected key elements, which form the temper of our character, make him a man and show who the Russian soldier is. Of course, he relies on courage, on his heart and love of a woman who helps a man to be strong".
Vladislav Miller: "Theater is always about creative research, you lock up as if you were in a monastery to work on your role. The production cycle is much shorter in cinema. We were very lucky: we could prepare before the shooting — we did endless read-throughs, rehearsed, watched war films. When I prepared for the role I even visited my grandmother to ask her about the heroic act of my great-grandfather Evstafiy during the war: he captured an informant. And I had the same scene. For me, this is the most difficult role I have ever played. And I want spectators to like this film".
Alena Morilova: "The phrase that war does not have a woman's face is very close to me". But, anyway, I understood that, actually, women have a lot of courage. My lady character believed in Liutenant Pluzhnikov, maybe, even more than he himself did. Regardless of what is happening in the outer world, Mirra has a life. At war, people want to live and love too. My Mirra taught me to go forward, hold out and keep loving".
This history film about courage, faith and love of homeland is based on the eponymous novel by Boris Vasilyev. On June 21, 1941 the young lieutenant Kolya Pluzhnikov, having received a permanent service appointment, arrives in Brest. Crowded waiting rooms of the railway station and the crowd of people carrying luggage do not alarm the young man who is full of happy hopes. Kolya hurries to the location of his unit, in Brest Fortress... There is no time for him to be enlisted to the military personnel and artillery strikes are heard at 4 am: the war has started...
Timur Vaynshteyn: "I believe Boris Vasilyev is one of the most outstanding military prose classics. Such films as Dawns Here are Quiet, One Two, Soldiers Were Going, Officers, Tomorrow was the War were made based on his works. It so has happened that there were few projects to cinematize his most brilliant story, His Name Was Not Listed, though it had a huge success in the theatre. Today, many people say that young audiences are not very much interested in war films, that is why it was important for us to tell the story about the heroism of young people and about all young boys who became men so suddenly. It was important for us to show the making of a young man, when he turns into a real man, a Russian soldier.
Vladimir Mashkov: "This is a story of a young lieutenant Kolya Pluzhnikov who finds himself amid those suggested circumstances he is absolutely not ready for. For me, this is another conversation with myself in the run-up to the great holiday, the Victory Day. We tried hard to make the film as honest, emotional and true as possible based on great literature. And I am proud of my guys who could decently make it through the filming and had lived by the rules of 1938 for 10 days, in the fields, fighting in night attacks: through that, they felt this feeling of love of homeland emerging in humans".
Sergey Korotaev: "We used "outbreaks of war" as a language in this film, as our character finds himself in the circumstances he is not ready for, he blacks out in first hours of the war and does not understand what is happening, he only has basic training, but he has to organize defense. The walls of Brest Fortress are full of memorial plaques and the average age of the kids killed there is 21. The story itself gave us the visual stylistics of the film: we selected key elements, which form the temper of our character, make him a man and show who the Russian soldier is. Of course, he relies on courage, on his heart and love of a woman who helps a man to be strong".
Vladislav Miller: "Theater is always about creative research, you lock up as if you were in a monastery to work on your role. The production cycle is much shorter in cinema. We were very lucky: we could prepare before the shooting — we did endless read-throughs, rehearsed, watched war films. When I prepared for the role I even visited my grandmother to ask her about the heroic act of my great-grandfather Evstafiy during the war: he captured an informant. And I had the same scene. For me, this is the most difficult role I have ever played. And I want spectators to like this film".
Alena Morilova: "The phrase that war does not have a woman's face is very close to me". But, anyway, I understood that, actually, women have a lot of courage. My lady character believed in Liutenant Pluzhnikov, maybe, even more than he himself did. Regardless of what is happening in the outer world, Mirra has a life. At war, people want to live and love too. My Mirra taught me to go forward, hold out and keep loving".