Karen SHAKHNAZAROV Карен ШАХНАЗАРОВ Karen CHAKHNAZAROV   Russia, 2008, 105 mn  Colour, fiction

The Vanished Empire ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Исчезнувшая империя    L'Empire disparu  Izcheznuvshaya imperia

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Plot synopsis

The film events take place in Moscow in the 1970-s. The plot is based on the classical love triangle: two youths and a girl. They are students of the same institute of higher education, live in a large country without suspecting that soon it will vanish from all the maps of our planet. This film narrates about love, youth, and the country named the Soviet Union.

 

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Commentaries and bibliography

The Self and the Other in Recent Russian Cinema, Birgit BEUMERS, kinokultura.com, 2010

Karen Shakhnazarov : The Vanished Empire (Ischeznuvshaia imperiia, 2008), Lilya KAGANOVSKY, kinokultura.com, 2008

 

The pre-production period included building of complicated settings, bringing of the location objects into line with the required epoch and screen tests, quite possible longest in Shakhnazarov’s practical work by his own admission. The students of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg theatrical schools Alexander Lyapin, Lidia Milyuzina, Egor Baranovsky and Ivan Kupreenko were appointed for leading parts after almost three months of daily showings, readings and film tests. All they are debutants in cinema, and the young people coped very well with their tasks in undivided opinion of all members of the production unit. The well-known actors Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Olga Tumaikina, Vladimir Ilyin acted supporting roles in the film.

Sergey Rokotov (script author): “I wanted to write the truthful script about young people of the seventies, about my youth and that epoch.I may say that there is nothingfabricated in the film. All events of the film happened to me and my friends in real life. The script narrates how we lived, loved, went through first disenchantments and made our first discoveries…”

Alexander Lyapin (acts the part of Sergey Narbekov, the leading character): “I think this film deals with maturing of the man, understanding of important ideas, values. At first my character reflects on nothing, he lives light-heatedly, even recklessly. Then some events happen to him and make him to search sense of most important things. At the end of the film he is a quite different more grown up person. It is surprising that at the same time as the shootings were carried out, the same often happened to me in my own life as to my character in the film.Sometimes it seemed to me that I was not Sasha Lyapin, but Seryozha Narbekov (laughing)…”

Lidia Milyuzina(acts the part of Lyuda Beletskaya): “My girl-character is congenial to me. There are even some associations in the script. The main character confuses names and calls her Lida at first, but she answers that she is Lyuda, but not Lida. During tests we read this scene, and I thought that it were amusing when I should say this text in the film. I differ from Lyuda certainly, but we have much in common. I can appreciate her and think that if I were she I act the same way in situations from the script…”

Egor Baranovsky (acts the part of Stepan Molodtsov): “After shootings I was said in the theatrical school that I began to act more convincing in exercises (laughing). As a matter of fact after three month’s shootings I saw that cinema is a more serious thing that it seemed me before. Karen Georgievich demanded the utmost attraction of attention from us; I did learn much while working with him. It was a pleasure to me to work with these people. I doubt whether such an air may be in every production unit. Here we felt as if we were members of a big family, and it was very sad to part with everyone in the last shooting day…”

The film shootings were carried out in Moscow, Gagry, Khiva, on the ruins of ancient Khoresm and lasted for three months. The director of photography Shandor Berkeshi (Koktebel, Free Quest, Arbat Children) was charged with the picture corresponded to the required epoch; the legendary Mosfilm art designer Lyudmila Kusakova was charged with sceneries (The Pokrovskiye Gates, Assasin, The Star). The premiere of the new film by Karen Shakhnazarov in cinema theatres of the country is to be performed in the beginning of the next year.
Source : www.mosfilm.ru

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Selected in the following festivals :

- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2012

- Days of the russian cinema in Tunisia, Tunis / Sousse / Hammamet (Tunisia), 2012

- Festival de cinéma russe à Marly, Marly (France), 2011

- Strasbourg two weeks of Russian cinema, Strasbourg (France), 2011

- Les rencontres culturelles Russenko, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre (France), 2011

- Moscow, St-Petersburg : two faces of Russia, Paris (France), 2010

- Tromso International Film Festival : TIFF, Tromso (Norway), 2010

- Days of the russian cinema in Tunisia, Tunis / Sousse / Hammamet (Tunisia), 2010

- Die russische Filmwoche im Burg Kino, Vienna (Austria), 2009

- Sofia International Film Festival, Sofia (Bulgaria), 2009

- Festival of contemporary russian films, Prague (Czech Republic), 2009

- Le Septième Art a une histoire. Cinéma russe, un week-end d'inédits, Nice (France), 2009

- Retrospective Russian cinema at the "Reflet Médicis", Paris (France), 2009

- Paris Russian Film Festival, Paris (France), 2009

- FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of East European Cinema, Cottbus (Germany), 2009

- Jerusalem International Film Festival, Jerusalem (Israel), 2009

- "Go Russia". Focus on New Russian Cinema, Luxembourg (Luxembourg), 2009

- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2009

- Monaco Charity Film Festival, Monaco (Principality of Monaco), 2009

- Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2009

- Belgrade International Film Festival, Belgrade (Serbia), 2009

- Russian film festival in Sweden 'KinoRiurik', Stockholm (Sweden), 2009

- Göteborg International Film Festival, Göteborg (Sweden), 2009

- Lone Star International Film Festival, Fort Worth (Texas) (USA), 2009

- Russian film symposium. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (USA), 2009

- World Film Festival, Montreal (Canada), 2008

- International Film Festival of Havana, Havana (Cuba), 2008

- Cairo International Film Festival, Cairo (Egypt), 2008

- Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2008

- International Film Festival of Kerala : IFFK, Kerala (India), 2008

- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2008

- "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2008

- Annual award of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics, Moscow (Russia), 2008

- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2008

- Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago (USA), 2008

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Photos and videos

 

Images de tournage. ©Mosfilm









Film with English and French subtitles : Click here

 

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