Birthday of the Prisoner of the Mountains
It goes without saying that in this case we are not talking about the novel of Leo Tolstoy, but the film by Sergei Bodrov Sr. "Prisoner of the Mountains", based on this novel. The film was released on the screens of Russian cinemas on March 15, 1996.
Due to the fact that in the mid-90s in Chechnya, where the events described in the film were taking place, there were hostilities, initially Sergei Bodrov Sr. was going to shoot a film in Bosnia, where the nature and other conditions are very similar to those in the Caucasus. However, in the summer of 1995, a sharp exacerbation of the situation took place in Bosnia, in particular in connection with the massacre in Srebrenica. The intention to shoot the film in Bosnia had to be abandoned. It was decided to make part of the filming in Dagestan, and part - in Kazakhstan.
However, Dagestan, located in the vicinity of Chechnya, where the fighting was taking place, turned out to be not such a calm place for filming. At first, the locals actually acted as bodyguards for the members of the film crew. But it so happened that the performer of one of the main roles, 12-year-old Susanna Mekhraliyeva, let slip that she was receiving a reward in dollars. And then the local residents, mostly Muslims, took the whole group hostage. As a compromise, all the actors and crew members had to be paid in rubles, which, given the high inflation in those years in Russia, seriously affected the material incentives for the film crew.
Perhaps it was these problems with material incentives that led to the emergence of problems with the performers of some roles in the film, in particular, the role of Ivan Zhilin. As a result, this role had to be taken on by Sergei Bodrov Jr., a non-professional actor, art critic by education, whom dad took to the shooting as a handyman. And Sergei Bodrov Jr. coped with this role brilliantly!
No less brilliant was the performance of the role of Sasha Kostylin by Oleg Menshikov. Confirmation of this is the awarding of both of the Russian film awards "Nika". In our opinion, the role of Kostylin in this film is the best to date in the acting career of Oleg Menshikov.
In May 1996, the film "Prisoner of the Mountains" was presented at the Cannes International Film Festival, but not in the competition program, but as part of the so-called "Directors Fortnight". But already two months later "Prisoner of the Mountains" became the winner of the international film festival in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. True, in all fairness, it should be noted that the "Prisoner of the Mountains" had no worthy competitors at this festival.
But in the dispute over the American Golden Globe Award, for which the film of Sergei Bodrov Sr. was nominated in the category Best Foreign Language Film, such a competitor appeared. It was the Czech film "Kolya" directed by Jan Sverak. "Kolya" became the owner of the Golden Globe.
The same story was repeated in the dispute for the Oscar in the nomination for Best Foreign Language Film: "Kolya" again beat "Prisoner of the Mountains".
But in the struggle for the Russian film award "Nika" the film of Sergei Bodrov Sr. again had no equal. Of the seven nominations received, "Prisoner of the Mountains" won 6, including, in addition to the already mentioned actors' nominations, the Best Picture and Best Director nominations.
The film "Prisoner of the Mountains" received quite favorable reviews from American professional film critics. So, Janet Maslin from The New York Times noted in her review:
"''Prisoner of the Mountains,'' which opens today at Lincoln Plaza, is directed by Mr. Bodrov with both an oddly tranquil spirit and the awareness of a tightening noose. The juxtaposition of these incongruous moods gives the film its quiet power. The captives' potential nightmare becomes a voyage of discovery, up to and even beyond the point where the realities of war become grimly clear. Mr. Bodrov allows one character's wry humor and sang-froid to sustain him even beyond the grave."
And the guru of American film critic Roger Ebert, who rated the film three and a half stars out of four possible, noted in his review
"we get a scene that shows the greater maturity of this film, as opposed to standard Hollywood war movies." As a confirmation of this thesis, or as an example, Ebert cites one of the episodes of the film: "The Muslim troops have gathered on a bleak hillside for a little entertainment: all-out fighting, starring their defending champion, who leaves his opponents broken and bloody. We watch while the fighter wins his latest bout, and then one of the prisoners is ordered to fight him. Frightened, trembling, he approaches the champion. In most Hollywood films, this scene would end with the good guy being beaten to a pulp, yes, but then staging a comeback and hammering the champion. "Prisoner of the Mountains'' is wiser about human nature: The champion, who is a fighter but not a murderer, takes one look at his puny challenger and dismisses him with a laugh. It is a special moment."
The audience highly appreciated the film by Sergei Bodrov Sr. "Prisoner of the Mountains". 60% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated this film from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of Sergei Bodrov Sr.'s film "Prisoner of the Mountains" according to FilmGourmand was 9.032, making it 156th in the Golden Thousand.
