Photo: Still from the film
It seems that in the near future the Russian audience will be treated to a whole series of films based on well-known fairy tales: “Flint”, “Musicians of Bremen”, “The Last Hero. Heritage” and others.
Another bright project promises to be a film adaptation of the story about the pike and Emelya – the film “At the Command of the Pike.”
Photo: Still from the film
“I’m a storyteller,” emphasizes the director of the project, Alexander Voitinsky, who also directed “Flint.” — I love fairy tales and I think that fairy tales are the main genre in 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 an adult will look and understand that truths work, and values help to win, and will move several steps in favor of these values. Our Emelya begins the film as a child. He has a dad who will solve everything. There is a stove on which you can lie, and the feeling that somehow everything will stick together by itself. And then he realizes that there are only two arms, two legs, a head and a heart. And you must move forward.
Photo: Still from the film
The plot of the fairy tale was not changed: a pike, three wishes, two stupid and one normal. And also a fight with an overseas whip (Yuri Kolokolnikov) for the hand of the Tsar’s (Roman Madyanov) daughter Anfisa (Alina Alekseeva).
“For me, Emelya is a completely new character,” emphasizes the leading actor Nikita Kologrivy. – It’s hard to find such people – pure, kind, carefree and brave – in the world and to spy on them. – – It’s easier to play antagonists, I know them, I’ve met them. And I had to create my character almost from scratch. But it’s very important for an artist to change like a chameleon. For me, this role is largely about discovering myself and my capabilities.
Photo: Still 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 guy and even quietly praises him for not disgracing the Fatherland in a head-to-head battle with a foreigner.
“It’s a great happiness to play in a large-scale, bright fairy tale at the beginning of my career,” admitted Mila Ershova, who played Pike. “I’m glad that my heroine doesn’t just serve as a girl next to the main character, but that my Pike-Vasilisa has her own destiny—not an easy one, with different twists and turns.” And of course, a wonderful long-suffering love line, you can’t get away without it. For me, this film is about the fact that a person can do everything on his own, without a magic pike, but with faith in magic, and most importantly, in himself.
Photo: Still from the film
Yes, having shed its scales, the pike will turn into the pretty Vasilisa, and will help Emelya find a self-assembled tablecloth, meet Bayun the Cat without consequences, and also go to the dark kingdom of Koshchei.
The filming was carried out by the team that shot another fairy-tale blockbuster, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” (2021). Work on the new project took place in the spring and summer of 2022 in St. Petersburg, Tyumen region, Perm, Tobolsk and the surrounding area. The scenery of the royal palace was built in the Lenfilm pavilions, and the gloomy Koshcheevo Kingdom was built within the walls of the former factory. For filming, the decorators developed three stoves, one of which went through the entire filming period, reaching St. Petersburg.
Photo: Still from the film
The film “At the Command of the Pike” will be released on big screens on October 26 (later on channel “Russia 1”).
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