Natalia MERKULOVA
Наталья МЕРКУЛОВА
Natalia MERKOULOVA
Aleksey CHUPOV
Алексей ЧУПОВ
Alekseï TCHOUPOV
Russia / Estonia / France, 2018, 120mn 
fiction
The Man Who Surprised Everyone
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Человек, который удивил всех

 

 L'Homme qui surprit tout le monde

 Chelovek, kotorij udivil vseh

 
Directed by : Aleksey CHUPOV (Алексей ЧУПОВ), Natalia MERKULOVA (Наталья МЕРКУЛОВА)
Writing credits : Aleksey CHUPOV (Алексей ЧУПОВ), Natalia MERKULOVA (Наталья МЕРКУЛОВА)
 
Cast
Yevgeni TSYGANOV (Евгений ЦЫГАНОВ) ...Iegor Korshunov
Natalia KUDRYASHOVA (Наталья КУДРЯШОВА) ...Natalya
Yuri KUZNETSOV (Юрий КУЗНЕЦОВ) ...Grand father Nikolay
Amadu MAMADAKOV (Амаду МАМАДАКОВ) ...The Doctor
Pavel MAYKOV (Павел МАЙКОВ) ...Zakhar
Vasili POPOV (Василий ПОПОВ) ...Artiom
Maksim VITORGAN (Максим ВИТОРГАН) ...The Professor
Yelena VORONCHIKHINA (Елена ВОРОНЧИХИНА) ...Shamanka
 
Cinematography : Mart TANIEL (Март ТАНИЭЛЬ)
Production design : Sergey AVSTRIEVSKIKH (Сергей АВСТРИЕВСКИХ), Anna BARTULI (Анна БАРТУЛИ)
Editing : Vadim KRASNITSKY (Вадим КРАСНИЦКИЙ)
Produced by : Yekaterina FILIPPOVA (Екатерина ФИЛИППОВА), Aleksandr RODNYANSKY (Александр РОДНЯНСКИЙ)
Other persons :
Продюсеры : Катрин Кисса / Katrin Kissa (Estonie); Гийом Де Сиель / Guillaume de Seille (France)
Production : Arizona Productions (France); Homeless Bob Production (Estonie); Нон-стоп Продакшн / Non-stop Production (Russie); Пан-Атлантик Студио / Pan-Atlantik Studio (Russie)
 
Sites : Allociné, IMDb
Release date in France : 2019-03-20, Site

Awards :
Best actor Yevgeni TSYGANOV , "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2019
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Yuri KUZNETSOV , "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2019
Audience Award Festival de films russes Kinorama au cinéma Royal de Biarritz, Biarritz (France), 2019
First prize Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2018
Best actor Yevgeni TSYGANOV , Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2018
Best actress Natalia KUDRYASHOVA , Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2018
Best actor Yevgeni TSYGANOV , Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2018
Best actress Natalia KUDRYASHOVA , Venice International Film Festival, Venice (Italy), 2018

DVD with subtitles
Editor : jhr FILMS. 2019. Titre : L'Homme qui a surpris tout le monde.
Interview
Making of

Plot synopsis
Egor is a fearless state forest guard in the Siberian Taiga. He is a good family man, respected by his fellow villagers and together with his wife Natalia they are expecting a second child. But one day Egor finds out that he has cancer and only two months left to live. No traditional medicine or shamanic magic can save him. Finally, left with no other options, he takes a desperate attempt to trick death. As disguise Egor chooses to take the identity of a woman.
 

Commentaries and bibliography
L’homme qui a surpris tout le monde (2018) [Natalia Merkoulova], Julien MORVAN, Perestroikino, 2021
L' Homme qui a surpris tout le monde - Natalia Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov -, Eugénie ZVONKINE, Cahiers du cinéma N° 753 (mars 2019), page 37, 2019
« L’homme qui a surpris tout le monde » : se travestir en femme face à la mort, Mathieu MACHERET, Le Monde, 2019
Natal’ia Merkulova, Aleksei Chupov: The Man Who Surprised Everyone (Chelovek, kotoryi udivil vsekh, 2018), Birgit BEUMERS, Kinokultura, 2019
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Russian or Soviet films awarded at Berlin, Cannes or Venice, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Festival de cinéma russe à Montpellier, Montpellier (France), 2021
- Days of Russian cinema in Limoges, Limoges (France), 2020
- Russian Film Festival For Another Russia, Paris (France), 2020
- Yerevan International Film Festival "Golden Apricot", Yerevan (Armenia), 2019
- Russian film festival in Ajaccio, Ajaccio (France), 2019
- Festival de films russes Kinorama au cinéma Royal de Biarritz, Biarritz (France), 2019
- Days of Russian cinema, Aix les Bains (France), 2019
- Release in France of the film, Different cities (France), 2019-03-20
- A l’Est du Nouveau. Festival de cinéma de l’Europe centrale et orientale, Rouen (France), 2019
- Journées du cinéma russe au Jean Renoir, Chambery (France), 2019
- Russian Film Festival For Another Russia, Paris (France), 2019
- Nantes Russian Film Festival, Nantes (France), 2019
- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 2019
- Tromso International Film Festival : TIFF, Tromso (Norway), 2019
- Era New Horizons IFF, Wroclaw (Poland), 2019
- Transilvania International Film Festival : TIFF, Cluj Napoca (Romania), 2019
- "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2019
- Göteborg International Film Festival, Göteborg (Sweden), 2019
- Istanbul International Film Festival, Istanbul (Turkey), 2019
- Seattle International Film Festival : SIFF, Seattle (USA), 2019
- Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival : PÖFF, Tallinn (Estonia), 2018
- Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2018
- Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux : FIFIB, Bordeaux (France), 2018
- Russian Film Week in Paris : Regards de Russie, Paris (France), 2018
- Venice International Film Festival, Venice (Italy), 2018
- Busan International Film Festival : BIFF, Busan (Pusan) (Korea, South), 2018
- Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2018

Photos and videos