On Thursday, October 27, the comedy fantasy series End of the World is released on Kinopoisk.
The main character is Demyan (for those who do not immediately catch the reference to the famous "Omen", the character in one of the scenes will be specifically called Damian) performed by Semyon Treskunov, a young man who grew up without a father and did not really take place in life.
The guy works as a cashier in the "Korzinochka", where the manager frankly rots him, lives in the same apartment with an elderly grandmother, mother, younger sister-zumer and his only joy - his beloved girl Galya (Ekaterina Ilyina).
The financial situation, the mother's lamentations and a heightened sense of responsibility do not allow to move out: Demyan and Galya share the room with their grandmother, who needs constant supervision and, in her own words, dreams only of death.
The gray and dull life of Demyan begins to play with new colors when his father appears in it, he is also Satan (Yuri Kolokolnikov).
The Pope intends to arrange an apocalypse, and for this he needs Demian the Antichrist, who, according to prophecy, should open the gates of hell and reign.
However, the protagonist does not want to “reign” anywhere, as well as to establish relations with his newfound father.
Not least because he considers him to be a scoundrel who left his family at a difficult time - in this way Demyan "humanizes" daddy, fitting him into the picture of his world, even with some assumptions in the form of miracles, which the Prince of Darkness does not skimp on.
As usual, everything, including the intransigent position of the protagonist, changes the case.
Rather, Demyan is sure that this is an accident, but in fact it is a planned sequence of events that leads to a tragedy.
She pushes the protagonist into the arms of a happy father, anticipating the end of the world.
Despite the abundance of comical situations, the series raises a huge number of deep topics - from the relationship between fathers and children to deeply philosophical discussions about human nature, his understanding of righteousness and sin, about retribution and responsibility for actions.
Moreover, in The End of the World there is not the vulgar humor typical of stand-up comedians, but rather a rather elegant satire, close in spirit to Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, adjusted for modernity.
By the way, there are also references to The Master and Margarita in the series - starting with a direct quotation (again, adjusted for modernity) of the famous scene with money from the theater.
In addition, in the series, Satan settled in the apartment of a criminal authority in the Bulgakov residential complex, and several dialogues take place on the Patriarchs.
And that's not all.
Frame from the series "End of the World"
© kinopoisk.ru
An attentive viewer will make out references to other famous works with similar ideas - "The Devil's Advocate", the TV series "Lucifer", the comedy "Nikki the Devil Jr", "Dogme" and even "Constantine: Lord of Darkness" with Keanu Reeves.
The authors of The End of the World can be praised for their subtle play with other people's material, which looks like quite appropriate Easter eggs, and not gross plagiarism.
The cast deserves special attention.
Kolokolnikov in the role of the Prince of Darkness is an absolute find.
It does not have the monumentality of Woland-Basilashvili or the irony of Woland-Gaft.
He doesn't look like the devil Ozzy from Nikki at all, and doesn't even look nearly as demonic as Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate.
The image of Kolokolnikov turned out to be incredibly solid, not clichéd and very bright - just like his outfits.
Despite the fact that this character does not shy away from humor, there is no frivolity in him, on the contrary, the actor perfectly conveyed the "passive aggressiveness" and the danger emanating from an almost omnipotent creature.
The development of the character of such a character took a lot of time for both the artist and the team.
“For this role, we looked at a lot of artists of very different appearance, different ages, nationalities,” said Alexander Nezlobin.
- They even tried one Hollywood star.
As a result, the role went to Yuri Kolokolnikov, and it seems to me that this is not just like that - there is a feeling that he himself is sometimes not alien to otherworldly forces.
He noted that religious scholars were hired to work on the project, who helped to think over the character of the Prince of Darkness.
A psychoanalyst also worked on the image.
“Everyone knows that any problem stretches from childhood, so we decided to look at the Prince of Darkness through the prism of his childhood years.
He had a stern and fair father, who always disappeared at work.
Our hero is offended by the fact that he dealt with sinners, worked in difficult conditions, and no one thanked him - neither people, nor supernatural forces, nor his father, ”says the director.
Azazello, the knight of hell, looks completely different.
His appearance and character development over the course of the series is an excellent demonstration of how the authors, on the one hand, quote the classics, giving a clear and familiar reference to the viewer, on the other hand, without slipping into absurdity, they give out a portion of satire on modern youth trends and idols.
Successfully fit into the overall picture and two clumsy angels performed by Nikolai Schreiber and Anton Rogachev, a witch-official from the Pension Fund (Ksenia Rappoport), Sergei Selin, who returned to the role of a policeman, and other very bright characters.
Alena Gulyashko, Anna Shlyakova and Vadim Sotnikov worked on the script of the project with the participation of the author of the Cinemax and HBO Max series Adam Targum ("Warrior", "Banshee", "Outcast").
“Together with our writing team, Adam Targum worked on the script, he consulted via video link almost around the clock, and due to the time difference, it was such that Adam went to sleep, and returned an hour later, while the script team prepared questions and ideas for him to discuss” - said Dmitry Nelidov.
The End of the World is an uncharacteristic project for the Russian film industry, unexpectedly bold and quite promising.
It will be equally understandable to an older audience, which at some points risks catching itself in nostalgia, and to a young viewer - taking into account the age limit of 18+, of course.
Well, the humor and the general mood, specific in places, will definitely be to the taste of fans of the work of the writer Georgy Zotov - at some points there is a feeling that “The End of the World” is almost a film adaptation of the book “Apocalypse Welcome”.