Actors Vitaly Khayev (left) and Mikhail Trukhin (right) on the set of the film “The Flint”.
“The Flint” is a classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a soldier who, with the help of a magical flint and three dogs with giant eyes, found a princess wife and a whole kingdom. It is now being screened by the CTB film company, the Rossiya TV channel and the CGF company. The producer was the master Sergei Selyanov, who released, on the one hand, all the most famous films by Alexei Balabanov, and on the other, many fairy tales (including cartoons about three heroes and The Little Humpbacked Horse).
In the Russian version, Andersen’s fairy tale will be substantially revised and will become almost a Russian folk tale. There will be Tsar Berendey, the villain Likhodey, the servant Balalai, etc. The soldier becomes Ivan, a boy who wanders the world in search of himself and a better life and loves to tell stories that he is actually a foreign prince, he was simply put under a spell and turned into an ordinary person. And the princess, that is, the princess (she is 12 years old, so the romantic line is excluded) will be inside the tinderbox: Likhodey himself imprisoned her there with the help of spells from a magic book. He made her father, the king, and the queen disappear, to lose all memory of her family, after which he sat down to rule alongside her. Also in the film will be the underground kingdom of the colorful people of gmurs, a balloon flight, a heavenly garden, a talking raven, and a mechanical horse named Kuda-necessary.
Filming is underway in Veliky Novgorod and will continue in Karelia and St. Petersburg. The film is directed by Alexander Voitinsky, who ate the dog in fairy tales, both popular Russian and modern (he directed Black Lightning, Ghost and By Pike, which will be released in the fall).
– We all grew up, including in this fairy tale. Only we have more adventures, and the hero is younger, Voitinsky says, in terms of genre, this is a classic Russian fairy tale with miracles and mischief. And in style – absolutely luxurious historicism – a combination of historical styles of the past, acquiring a new modernity in a Russian fairy tale, striking examples of different eras and close cultures. We shot in real interiors, following the tradition of our “By Pike”. Only then we went to Siberia, and now to the North-West, we filmed in the Novgorod Kremlin and Znamensky Compound. These are historical monuments included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List.
The main roles – Ivan and Princess Dasha hiding in steel – will be played by Roman Evdokimov and Antonina Boyko. And the film also stars Mikhail Trukhin, Irina Starshenbaum, Vitaly Khaev, Yuri Kuznetsov and the star of the film “Major Grom. Difficult childhood ”- Sergey Marin.
Mikhail Trukhin, for example, told reporters on the set:
– Today we filmed almost the beginning of the movie, the scene in the courtyard of the palace. Little princess Dasha is training with her mentor Foma (Sergey Marin.-Ed), she is fighting, she is learning to fight with sticks. And my hero, Balalay, and Vitaly Khaev’s hero, Likhodey, are servants. He cuts wood. Chopped a lot of wood today… Balalay is a talking name: my hero talks a lot. And he becomes the right hand of the main villain. Sneaky, cunning, smart. He is an understanding person, but there is no chance of him becoming kind to a scoundrel. Yes, he has the overflows of him, but…
And Irina Starshenbaum says:
– I have long dreamed of playing in a fairy tale. And now the dream has come true. During the last year there have been many serious dramatic works. And this is not the first role of a mother in my career. But it is really interesting that in Flint, the role of the Queen was entrusted to a young actress … My costumes are beautiful, Nadezhda Vasilyeva is my favorite artist, I always dreamed of working with her (Vasilyeva is a famous costume designer, the widow of Alexei Balabanov, who dressed his characters, including Danila Bagrov – Ed.). Here they work together with Olga Mikhailova, they do not make the first fairy tale together. It’s a pity you didn’t see my main dress, sewn with gold threads… At the test, I saw another character’s dress and gold lions embroidered on it. I said that I want too. And Nadezhda did push-ups in my dress.
And finally, Vitaly Khaev, who played the main scoundrel Likhodey, says:
– The essence of Likhodey is deceit, deceit, cruelty. The main evil in this story centers on me. But, as you know, in fairy tales good always wins, so my fate is sealed. What does evil need? Money, power, wealth. Likhodey was always a servant. Being in the service, he dreamed of power and decided to turn his life in this direction. There are no traces of goodness in my character. Absolutely pure evil…
Several times I made visits to star in a fairy tale, but not everything worked out. They even sewed me a suit once, but a pandemic started… And finally, it all came together.
