On April 22, at the Moscow International Film Festival, a screening of the film by Timur Bekmambetov and Sergei Trofimov "Devyatayev" was held.
The plot of the picture is based on the biography of the pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev.
The script was worked on by a team of authors, which included Maxim Budarin ("Battle for Sevastopol", "Draft") and Konstantin Galdaev ("Major 3").
The pilot's son Alexander Devyatayev acted as a consultant for the project.
He provided the filmmakers with many of the materials he collected, one way or another related to the story described.
Also, when preparing the plot, they used the book of Mikhail Devyatayev himself "Escape from Hell", the memoirs of other pilots and numerous archival documents.
“It was a very responsible job, because we were dealing with the story of a real person, not a fictional one.
We did a lot of research.
As a matter of fact, the film happened precisely thanks to the book written by Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev, it is called "Escape from Hell".
When you read it, it immediately becomes clear that this is a movie, ”said Timur Bekmambetov.
The main role went to Pavel Priluchny ("Major", "Union of Salvation").
Pavel Chinarev, Dmitry Lysenkov, Evgeny Serzin, Timofey Tribuntsev, Nikita Kologrivy, Alexey Filimonov, Daria Zlatopolskaya and other actors also starred in the tape.
Mikhail Devyatayev joined the army in 1938 and entered the A.
K.E.
Voroshilov.
After graduation, he served in Russia, Latvia and Belarus.
There he was found by the Great Patriotic War.
In 1944, Mikhail Devyatayev was captured.
At first, they tried to persuade him to treason, and later, because of his refusal to cooperate with the Nazis, he was sent to a concentration camp near the city of Lodz.
From there, Devyatayev tried to escape, but his plan was revealed, and the military was sentenced to death and transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany.
There, a local hairdresser handed the pilot the tag of a recently deceased teacher who was not included in the suicide squad.
For some time Devyatayev lived in the camp under an assumed name.
Later, he was transferred to the island of Usedom, a concentration camp serving the Peenemünde test site, where the first Nazi Fau missiles were tested.
Devyatayev and other prisoners developed an escape plan.
In February 1945, prisoners captured a Heinkel He 111 bomber and fled to the USSR in it.
Shot from the film "Devyatayev"
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© sonypictures
The action of the film begins in 1944, when Mikhail Devyatayev's plane comes under fire, and the pilot himself, leaving it, hits the console, loses consciousness and is captured. The tape shows the key episodes of Devyatayev's imprisonment, but the main plot is centered directly around the escape and preparation for it.
The plot is extremely intense: throughout the entire timing, exciting events unfold, and the tension only grows with each new turn. At the same time, almost all the episodes shown on the screen took place in real life: the filmmakers tried to base everything on the documents at their disposal and not only not think of anything, but also present the events of that time on the screen as accurately as possible. Even the culminating scene of the hijacking of the plane and the subsequent escape is set close to the memories of Mikhail Devyatayev.
As Bekmambetov said, while working on this scene, the team faced a serious dilemma: in the mass consciousness there is a stereotype according to which, in order to lift an aircraft into the air, it is necessary to pull the control wheel towards oneself, whereas it is Heinkel, shown on the screen, that is arranged differently - there the steering wheel must be pushed in the opposite direction.
Despite the fact that this moment, in the opinion of filmmakers, could raise questions from a wide audience, the choice was made in favor of the historical truth.
Interestingly, all the battle scenes were filmed in a game with elements of a War Thunder simulator dedicated to military equipment.
They look very realistic on the screen, and the effect of presence allows the viewer to immerse themselves in what is happening.
Only a few episodes are completely fictional, which made the story even more intense.
Among them - the opening scene in the bus and the fall of a bomb into the hangar with an airplane.
Shot from the film "Devyatayev"
vk.com
© sonypictures
Another interesting artistic solution is associated with the second central character - Devyatayev's on-screen friend, pilot Nikolai Larin, performed by Pavel Chinarev.
According to the plot, he is also captured and, realizing what fate awaits him in the future (the prisoners were often considered traitors to their homeland), agrees to cooperate with the Nazis.
At the same time, he is constantly tormented by a moral choice - he does not want to go against a close friend, but it is dangerous to help him.
The hero is tormented by a feeling of shame and fear of returning to his homeland, where even his own father, most likely, will not understand his choice.
Timur Bekmambetov suggested that after being captured, Mikhail Devyatayev could have all sorts of doubts, but there is no documentary evidence for them, and the authors of the tape did not dare to think of his thoughts and internal monologues for the hero.
Therefore, the character of Chinarev was introduced, which in a sense is an alter-ego of Devyatayev.
It reflects the concerns and conflicting emotions of the protagonist.
Such a move, according to Bekmambetov, helped to tell "what happened inside the hero, without adding to him non-existent remarks."
“Both characters, it seems to me, are the same Devyatayev, decomposed into two images,” the director noted.
At the same time, the appearance in the plot of Nikolai Larin made the story more lyrical. Along with difficult military events, a story of friendship, betrayal and forgiveness unfolds on the screen, which passes through the years and allows not only to make the movie more intriguing and emotional, but also to reveal the character of the screen Devyatayev to a greater extent.