Russian director made a comedy about besieged Leningrad

Director Alexei Krasovsky made a “sometimes black, but more often light and new year” comedy about a family living in besieged Leningrad. In the State Duma they are already calling to ban the film, and in the Russian military-historical society they are asked not to give him a rolling license. But Krasovsky says that he was misunderstood and that “The Holiday” (that's what his picture is called) is not a comedy about a blockade, but a film about love.

Photo: medialeaks.ru

At the end of July, Russian director Alexei Krasovsky, who shot the film “The Collector” with Konstantin Khabensky in the title role, began collecting funds for a new work - the film “Holiday”. The crowdfunding campaign was launched on the portal Planeta.ru, and the director planned to collect a half million rubles ($ 22 950).

The film takes place on December 31 in besieged Leningrad, and in the center of the plot is a family living in a special position for one New Year's night.

Siege of Leningrad, December 31. In the country house of the Resurrection, living "in a special position," six people and a chicken that no one can cook is gathered. The cook used to do this, but she was taken away from Voskresenskys the day before - hard times came outside, and the situation was also difficult inside: the younger son brought a hungry girl, the eldest daughter - an unfamiliar man, whom she was going to marry. There are just a few minutes left before the New Year, and the number of problems is growing like a snowball.

The expression “on a special position” means, first of all, that the Voskresensky family did not experience the nutritional problems that most Leningradians had during the blockade years. As an example, the director cites the diaries of the instructor of the personnel department of the city committee of the CPSU (b), Nikolai Ribkovsky, in which he says that he has no difficulties with nutrition and does not particularly feel war.

Alexey Krasovsky / Planeta.ru

Another important point - the genre affiliation of the film. Here is how it is indicated on the same site Planeta.ru.

And it is not terrible to admit this, but this is a comedy, sometimes black, but more often light and new year.

As a result, despite Alena Babenko and Yana Tsapnik in the caste, the film could not even collect 10% of the desired one and a half million rubles. But September 22 Krasovsky posted on his YouTube channel video, in which he said that the filming process of the film was successfully completed.

I am the author of the script, the director and - by the will of fate - the producer of the film “Holiday”. We shot the film, we are now in the montage, the dubbing is coming soon. And I believe that we will still bring this film to the end, to the viewer. And everything will be fine or even better.

Completion of the shooting did not cause a big stir, until after a couple of weeks the media did not pay attention to the picture, and along with them the users of social networks. So now, for example, user comments to fundraising on Planeta.ru look.

Began to oppose the film and various officials. So, the State Duma deputy from St. Petersburg, Sergey Boyarsky, has already announced that he will make every effort so that the picture does not come out.

I think that the very idea of ​​making a comedy on this topic is already blasphemy and shame. For many generations of Petersburgers, the blockade of Leningrad is a sacred, sacred page of the history of our city. In the pursuit of creative expression, excesses often occur, and we witness the appearance of such inappropriate experiments. I hope that it will not be possible to realize it. As a St. Petersburg resident I will do everything in my power.

In the public organization "Residents of besieged Leningrad," they also say that the film is absolutely inappropriate.

We never had such things. There was no particular position; now it is harder for you to pass in Smolny than at that time. People do not understand, do not know what was real here. Such films are very inappropriate to shoot. Because only real documentary knowledge can [allow] to shoot. Well, why? People who know and understand what was here are still alive.

And the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society, Mikhail Myagkov, 15 of October, publicly appealed to the Ministry of Culture with a request not to issue a rental certificate to Prazdnik, while talking about the information war of the West against Russia.

From the movie

I will declare at all platforms that such films cannot be shown in our country today. In my opinion, this is an absolute blasphemy - to make a film-comedy about the tragedy of besieged Leningrad. What kind of humor can there be? This is a tragedy. This is a provocation, which is again launched against the history of our country, against its present. This is part of the information war. It is unleashed by the West. Such films play into the hands of those people who do not want our country to be a great power.

In this case, the filmmakers do not agree with what they are accused. So, actress Alyona Babenko believes that people who criticize the picture can only be destructive.

These are people who have nowhere to apply fantasy. Krasovsky independently made this picture from beginning to end. In our country, it is impossible to get help so easily. But the country is actively attacking films, immediately looking for some nasty things, meanness - that is what I know for sure. How to help you is not there, and how to shout and scold is “we are here, hello.”

From the movie

And director Alexey Krasovsky actively responds to criticism on his Facebook page. There he explains that his new work is primarily a film about love.

Especially for those who love to prohibit, plant and shoot: the film “Holiday” has already been shot, they didn’t take money from the state at all, the producer came out with the operator. Costumes were helped by “Rental of KapuSSta NZ costumes”, furniture and props were borrowed from Lenfilm, where they read the script, it seems, everyone did not notice any signs of incitement either. The House-Museum of Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov let us in, with whom - you won’t believe - we also parted as friends. In a word, there were a lot of native Petersburgers who helped us, no one spat in the back and did not dissuade them from filming. I understand that in the absence of a national idea, we are best able to export hate, but the film, sorry, is about love.

Krasovsky responds to the two main critics' claims. The first is the fact that the film is called the “black comedy about besieged Leningrad”.

We did not shoot a comedy about besieged Leningrad. The scene does not equal the plot. If so perverted, then the “Irony of Fate” is a comedy about drunken doctors and negligence in Aeroflot.

The second is “a special position” in which the Voskresensky family lived and which, according to many critics, has no historical basis.

There is no reliable information about how party leaders actually lived and ate, how many wagons with food were brought to Zhdanov, and so on. All these facts were challenged by the Live Journal and Picaba commentators, surprisingly, I have not read them yet, otherwise all doubts would have disappeared, and the film would not have to be made.

The date of the premiere of the movie "Holiday" is still unknown. The Ministry of Culture did not make any official statements about its attitude to the painting and the proposals to take away its rental certificate.

Sometimes filming movies, by the way, doesn’t happen at all in the way you imagine them. The creators of the series "Just kidding" with Jim Carrey, for example, showed how to shoot a two-minute scene in one double. And off-screen action is much cooler than many modern action films.

Russian cinema, however, often goes a completely different way. The Kultura TV channel filmed a documentary about the Russian prince Peter of Oldenburg, who found ancient Egyptian artifacts in the Voronezh region. True, it suddenly turned out that this plot was taken from a science fiction writer’s book.

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