The premiere of the film by director Oleg Shtrom at the Okean cinema was a sell-out, after the screening the audience applauded the film crew that had flown to the capital of Primorye for a long time. And a few hours before it, producers Yuri Obukhov and Alexey Ryazantsev, actor Dmitry Pevtsov and the lead actor Bato Shoynzhonov met with journalists and told how the film was born.
On September 24, 2010, a fire broke out in the engine room of the destroyer Bystry, which was preparing for a combat mission from Fokino to Kamchatka, due to an electrical short circuit. Aldar, having handed over his watch, did not have time to leave and rushed to shut off the fuel supply valve to avoid an explosion. The price of his feat was burns incompatible with life. For four days, doctors at the Pacific Fleet hospital fought for his life, but they were unable to save him.
– The idea to make the film was born in Vladivostok at the 33rd berth, where the Pacific Fleet ships are based. When we were finishing the film “Nakhimovites”, which was also filmed here, I was walking with the fleet commander, saw the large ships “Admiral Vinogradov”, the cruiser “Varyag” and the small corvette “Hero of Russia Aldar Tsydenzhapov” at the berth and asked who it was named after. Sergei Iosifovich Avakyants told me the story of this guy, and it shocked me. We decided that we needed to make a good film about this guy, – said the film’s producer Yuri Obukhov.
Actor Dmitry Pevtsov, who played a Pacific Fleet hospital doctor in the film who tries to save a 19-year-old sailor, flew to Vladivostok especially for the film’s premiere.
– I haven’t acted in a film for seven years, there were no interesting scripts for me. After reading the script, I couldn’t refuse: for me, this is not so much an actor’s job as human participation in that rare example of cinematography that is made with love for Russia, with love for its army, for the hero and with love for the viewer. In our cinematography over the past 30 years, there have been practically no such pearls. We have learned to film, to make blockbusters, but that soul, that love that was in Soviet cinema, it is gone, – said Dmitry Pevtsov.
The filming took place on the same destroyer “Bystry”, it has already been withdrawn from the Pacific Fleet, but the film crew was allowed to use it. It had to be painted to make everything as authentic as possible. As the creators of the film note, they tried to make everything as realistic as possible. Filming also took place in the small village of Aginskoye in the Zabaikalsky Krai, in the very house where Aldar Tsydenzhapov’s relatives still live. Since childhood, he wanted to serve in the navy, like his grandfather.
According to the producers and actors, the film could have been just a documentary, but the creators of the project decided to make a full-length film. There is the hero’s family, his relationship with his girlfriend, and his sincere love for his homeland. So he turned out to be alive, vivid evidence of this – the lively, sometimes tearful, emotions of the audience in the hall.
Photo: Photo by the press service of the Pacific Meridians
The main role in the film was played by Bato Shoynzhonov, an actor of the Buryat Drama Theater in Ulan-Ude, where he has been working for four years after graduating from the Shchukin Theater Institute. While preparing for the role, he talked to the parents and his sister, a school friend of the deceased sailor, and learned from him more “boy stories” that you don’t always learn from your parents. The actor served in the army, served in an aviation regiment in the seaside village of Chernigovka, although he dreamed of the navy. The role in the film helped fulfill his dream, although he had to experience everything “for real.”
– We prepared, we had exercises, we closed the breaches from the side, from above… Water was pouring all around, so the footage will be true, how sailors act when an accident happens, everything is real, – said Bato, recalling the details of the filming. – Those nine seconds that it took a nineteen-year-old guy to do his duty and save his comrades, we filmed for two days. Honestly, it is difficult to understand how he decided to do this, but I honestly tried to convey this to the viewer.
And the producers noted that they had specially built the filming schedule in such a way as to emotionally prepare the actor for the difficult ending, so that he would have already “lived” the entire previous life of the hero. After all, it is no secret that in cinema, filming often depends on the actors’ workload and other circumstances, which is why the ending can be filmed earlier than the beginning of the film.
The music for the film is by Alexey Rybnikov. After reading the script, he responded to the producers’ proposal succinctly: “I’m ready!” And the song that the sailors sing so soulfully to the guitar was written by an amateur author, a naval sailor. That’s probably why it sounds so heartfelt.
The film will premiere in Chita on September 20, and in Aginskoye, Aldar Tsydenzhapov’s native village, on September 21. The film will be released in wide release on September 26.
Reference “RG”: The film “9 Seconds” was created with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the assistance of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The film screening in Vladivostok was organized by the team of the international film festival of the Asia-Pacific countries “Pacific Meridians”. It was previously planned that the film would open the festival this year, but due to various circumstances it did not take place. But the cultural project “Pacific Meridians. Events” was implemented. As part of the project, an exhibition dedicated to the history of the festival, which was first held 20 years ago, is taking place in the “Arka” gallery, lectures and master classes are organized. In the square named after Yul Brynner (a Hollywood star born in Vladivostok), film screenings of the traditional festival programs “Made in Vladivostok” and “Made in the Far East” will be held.
Source: rg.ru
