The Start online cinema and the STS TV channel are filming a new eight-episode detective project about the inhabitants of an elite village.
The director is Sergei Sentsov (Fizruk, 1703, Dyldy).
Denis Utochkin ("Ordinary Woman") worked on the script together with Maria Melenevskaya and Timur Ezugbay.
The action of the series takes place in one of the suburban villages where officials, businessmen, an opera diva and other wealthy people live.
Their usual life changes after the murder of the nanny of one of the families.
There are many suspects, because all the neighbors have their skeletons in the closet.
An experienced investigator Elizaveta Yegorovna, performed by Irina Rozanova, takes over the case.
During the investigation, she finds out that almost every inhabitant of the village has a motive for murder.
detective tale
As Sergei Sentsov noted, “Prestige” is a story about the “inside out and the face”, in which everyone pretends, regardless of status and availability of money.
According to the director, this is a modern fairy tale for adults.
He called the tape a fairy tale for a reason: the main plot of the series is a story that a grandmother (a former investigator) tells her grandchildren.
The director explained that this storytelling format "provides an opportunity for extraordinary visual solutions and the unusual existence of actors in the frame."
The audience is waiting for a closed detective story in the style of Agatha Christie, told in the form of a "terrible tale" with the appropriate atmosphere.
When working on the series, the film crew is inspired by a variety of paintings.
Production designer Timofei Ryabushinsky said that before each shift, the director names a film that is similar in style or feel, thereby setting the team in the right direction.
Among such tapes there was already a noir "Vertigo" (1958) and a detective story "Knives Out" (2019).
Despite the gloom of the narrative and plot, the project will also have humor.
At the same time, the authors of the series will not amuse the audience with jokes, but will amuse with irony and satire.
“This is, of course, a multi-genre project, in which there is a detective story, and comedy, and drama, and satire,” the START online cinema quotes Sentsov as saying.
The name of the series "The Prestige" was chosen to emphasize the setting and the society in question, as well as to show the "contrast of two worlds".
“We create a contrast between two worlds: the world of everyday life, which each of us faces every day, and the closed world, an elite, super-guarded place, where the same people with the same problems, but they are hypertrophied, because they are always under increased attention .
The main conceptual load in the title is built precisely on this contrast,” the authors of the project say.
Heroes and their features
The team of the series has assembled a star cast: along with Irina Rozanova, the roles are played by Yulia Snigir, Lyubov Tolkalina, Vera Kincheva, Askar Ilyasov, Nikita Pavlenko, Nastasya Samburskaya and others.
Since The Prestige is a closed detective story, the viewer will often see many famous artists in one frame.
“We have gathered just an incredible ensemble of actors - all very characteristic and talented.
And Yulia Snigir, who is now the face of Russian cinema, and Irina Rozanova, and Vera Kincheva.
Everyone, in our opinion, is precisely matched to their roles.
It was pretty easy (casting. -
RT
), a lot of very accurate hits, ”says Andrey Begunov, general director of the KIT Film Studio, which shoots the project together with START.
Yulia Snigir will appear before the audience as one of the residents of the village - Elvira, a young woman who seeks to find balance and not lose it even in stressful situations.
She practices yoga and also enjoys the practice of Feng Shui.
Her screen husband Kamil will be played by Askar Ilyasov, a successful IT specialist and startup.
The hero is young, but has already reached considerable heights and owns a solid fortune.
© Shot from the film "The Prestige"
“I’m interested to know how a young man feels when, by the age of 30, he achieves almost everything that he dreamed of.
The viewer bursts into that moment of Kamil's life when he is going through the first big crisis in his life: he has a lot of existential questions and he does not understand what to do with it,” says Ilyasov.
Actors Ilya Lyubimov and Lyubov Tolkalina play another married couple living in the village.
Tolkalina admitted that in the series she will appear in a rather bright and aggressively sexual image.
Irina Rozanova plays the role of the grandmother-narrator and the "queen of the police" Elizaveta Yegorovna.
Whether this is one character and whether the story of the grandmother is true is a question that each viewer will answer independently.
The actress was not the only one who was considered for the role of the investigator, but the fundamental experience and charisma of Rozanova convinced filmmakers to make a choice in her favor.
According to Irina Rozanova, Sergei Sentsov initially planned to make the investigator younger and more beautiful, but then he came to the conclusion that Elizabeth should be a typical grandmother.
“At first the director wanted to make me younger and prettier, but then he said: “No, everyone around is beautiful.
You will be a grandmother in a headscarf,” recalls Irina Rozanova.
Another distinguishing feature of her character is a constant cold.
To simulate a runny nose, Rozanova has to use a nasal spray before each "motor" and during breaks.
“She is always with snot and cough, because her work is hard, she constantly goes somewhere.
And I spray Aqua Maris for it.
But I did wash my nose well.
Directly the role of recovery, ”said the actress.
Nikita Pavlenko will play a fellow worker and assistant to Elizabeth Yegorovna.
The actor admitted that this is his first experience in this genre.
His hero is a stranger in the society of rich people.
“My character Vasilchenko is a guy who ends up in a certain land of Oz.
And he is very surprised at everything that happens, ”says Pavlenko.
Interior reflects character
Although the action of the series takes place in one cottage village, filming takes place in three places - in Istra, Novaya Riga and Rublyovka.
The houses were selected from a list of properties for sale.
© Shot from the film "The Prestige"
There are three main cottages in the story, each reflecting the characteristics of the owner.
For example, the design of the house where the heroine of Yulia Snigir lives is made in muted colors and has a minimalistic interior.
“First of all, we thought about the contrast between the houses.
And the house of the Alymovs is such a house of inner peace, nature and asceticism,” said production designer Timofey Ryabushinsky.
The obvious opposite is the cottage of an opera diva: the location emphasizes the brightness of the character of the heroine.
And the house of Peter and Irina Filimonov (Ilya Lyubimov and Lyubov Tolkalina) is decorated in the Victorian style and resembles the dwelling of English lords.
The series is scheduled to premiere in 2023.