Photo: Frame from the film.
It seems that in the near future the Russian audience will be able to enjoy a whole series of films based on famous fairy tales: “Flint”, “Musicians of Bremen”, “The Last Hero”. Heritage” and others.
Another brilliant project promises to be a film adaptation of the story about Pike and Emelya – the film “On Pike’s Command.”
Photo: Frame from the film.
“I’m a storyteller,” emphasizes the project’s director, Alexander Voitinsky, who also directed “Flint.” — I love fairy tales and I think fairy tales are the main genre of cinema. A fairy tale changes the world: this is its direct function. And the world changes only thanks to a fairy tale. A child or adult will see and understand that truths work and values help win, and will take several steps in favor of these values. Our Emelya begins the film when she was a child. She has a dad who will fix everything. There is a stove to lie on and the feeling that somehow everything will hold itself together. And then she realizes that there are only two arms, two legs, one head and one heart. And you must move forward.
Photo: Frame from the film.
The plot of the fairy tale did not change: one pike, three wishes, two stupid and one normal. And also a fight with a foreign whip (Yuri Kolokolnikov) for the hand of the tsar’s daughter (Roman Madyanov), Anfisa (Alina Alekseeva).
“For me, Emelya is a completely new character,” emphasizes lead actor Nikita Kologrivy. – It is difficult to find such people in the world, pure, kind, carefree and brave, and spy on them. – – It is easier to play antagonists, I know them, I have met them. And I had to create my character almost from scratch. But for an artist it is very important to change like a chameleon. For me, this role is very much about discovering myself and my capabilities.
Photo: Frame from the film.
What is especially important today is that the project has the right accents and, for example, the tsar, for whose daughter Emelya and Lord Rothman are competing, internally supports our boy and even quietly praises him for not dishonoring the Fatherland in head. He battles face to face with a foreigner.
“It is a great happiness to play in a bright, large-scale fairy tale at the beginning of my career,” admitted Mila Ershova, who played Pike. “I am glad that my heroine not only acts as a girl next to the main character, but that my Pike-Vasilisa has her own destiny, it is not easy, with different twists and turns.” And, of course, a wonderful long-suffering love line that you can’t do without. For me, this film is about the fact that a person can do everything himself, without a magic pike, but with faith in magic and, most importantly, in himself.
Photo: Frame from the film.
Yes, getting rid of his scales, the pike will turn into the beautiful Vasilisa and will help Emelya to find a tablecloth made by herself, to meet the cat Bayun without consequences, and also to go to the dark kingdom of Koshchei.
The filming was carried out by the team that filmed another fairy tale blockbuster, “The Humpbacked Horse” (2021). Work on the new project was carried out in the spring and summer of 2022 in St. Petersburg, the Tyumen region, Perm, Tobolsk and the surrounding area. The setting of the royal palace was built in the Lenfilm pavilions, and the gloomy Kingdom of Koshcheevo was built within the walls of the old factory. For filming, the decorators developed three stoves, one of which traveled throughout the filming period until reaching St. Petersburg.
Photo: Frame from the film.
The film “In Command of the Pike” will be released on big screens on October 26 (later on the “Russia 1” channel).
