“Love Without Memory” and the feat of Gennady Zaitsev: the films “Commander”, “One Day in Istanbul” and “Light” are released in cinemas

"Commander"

The film is based on the memoirs of Major General Gennady Zaitsev “Alpha is my destiny.” The plot is based on the story of how on December 1, 1988, four criminals seized a bus with 32 children, a teacher and a driver in the city of Ordzhonikidze (now Vladikavkaz). The terrorists held people captive for days, and for their freedom they demanded from the government a private plane, money and the opportunity to fly abroad. Negotiations with the bandits were conducted by Gennady Zaitsev, who led the operation to rescue the hostages and detain the criminals. 

Zaitsev grew up without a father in a remote Ural village. He had many obstacles in his life, but he managed to overcome them all and became one of the founders of the anti-terrorist unit Alpha Group.

The film was directed by Alexander Guryanov (“Airport”) and Timur Khvan, who previously produced films such as “The Best Film” and “White Snow.” The main role was played by Kirill Zaitsev (“Moving Up,” “The Last Hero: The Root of Evil”). The cast also included such artists as Valery Barinov, Nikita Bureev, Vladimir Zaitsev, Artyom Tkachenko, Vadim Andreev. The parents of the captured children were played by former schoolchildren who were on the captured bus.

Filming took place in Moscow, Perm, Vladikavkaz, Vologda, as well as in the Karmadon Gorge.

“In addition to the airport, filming took place in several locations in Vologda itself. For example, on February 13 we filmed near a school on Lunacharsky Street and on a hill in Mira Park. A large number of Vologda residents are involved in the film’s extras; 1,000 applications from those wishing to work on the set were reviewed,” the 35media.ru portal quotes the foreman of the extras and the head of the “Actors of Crowd Scenes of the Vologda Region” group Alexey Pekar.

"Perfect Friends" (The Trouble with Jessica)

The couple, Sarah and Tom, decide to sell their house due to financial problems. When a buyer appears, the couple throws a farewell dinner and invites their best friends, Richard and Beth, over. A pleasant evening is spoiled by the arrival of an uninvited guest - writer Jessica. Nobody knows why she came, but everyone decides to put up with it and continue communicating. Jessica is later found dead in the garden. Sarah worries that the buyer, upon learning of the woman's death, will refuse the deal, and asks her husband and friends to help her move the corpse to another place.

The roles were played by Shirley Henderson (“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”), Alan Tudyk (“I, Robot”), Rufus Sewell (“Exchange Holiday”), Olivia Williams (“The Sixth Sense”) and others.

The film was directed by Matt Winn. According to him, working on this project is a director’s dream.

"Perfect Friends is the film I've always wanted to make: a dark comedy and satire of the British middle class, looking at what they hope for, what they dream about, what they're being dishonest about and being hypocritical," Digital Spy quotes the director as saying. .

"Love Without Memory" (30il)

The plot of the South Korean comedy centers on the spouses Chung-yeol and Na-ra. They married for love, but over time, warm feelings turned into mutual hatred: the heroes cannot stand each other, constantly argue and quarrel. They file for divorce, after which they have to wait 30 days until freedom. However, the couple suddenly have an accident and both lose their memory. Former lovers struggle with amnesia and get to know each other all over again.

The director was Nam Dae-joon (“Man Fatale”). According to him, during the filming of the film there was a very joyful atmosphere on the set.

“During the filming of this film, there was never a moment when I didn’t feel happy. On set, I often thought: “How can I make the audience laugh if I can’t make the person who’s here next to me laugh?” And we worked on this collectively: the cast and crew worked together to create something truly inspiring,” The Korea Times quoted the director as saying.

The roles of the spouses were played by Kang Ha-neul (“The Squid Game”) and Jeon So-min (“Ship to Busan”). They previously starred together in the film “Twenty.”

"One day in Istanbul"

The film stars Quartet I members Kamil Larin, Leonid Barats, Alexander Demidov and Rostislav Khait.

In the story, Dr. German, writer Denis, politician Marat and producer Konstantin fly to Istanbul at the invitation of businessman friend Vadik to have fun on his yacht. Upon arrival, the heroes learn that their friend has died, but his assistant suggests that the guests have a wake on a watercraft.

A sad event unites Vadim's friends. While walking along the Bosphorus, they laugh, remember their friend and come to the conclusion that the businessman influenced the lives of each of them.

The characters touch on many difficult topics and realize that Vadik’s death is not the worst thing that happened to them that day.

“The film has a lot of signature “Quartet” dialogues - about life, women, money, friendship, fate - but they are very different from the dialogues from “Men Conversations”... This story is an attempt to analyze where you are, whether you have committed mistakes, whether they could have been avoided or whether they led first to success and then to failure,” Barats explained to RBC.

In a conversation with Our Radio, Demidov noted that this is not a typical entertaining movie, and not every viewer will want to come to see it.

“It’s clear that we didn’t film a fairy tale, as is now fashionable, and we won’t collect billions,” said the artist. “This is not a leisure movie where the whole family will come, from a small child to a pensioner.”

The film was directed by Avet Oganesyan based on the play “One Day in the Death of Vadik Belyaev,” which in turn was based on the real story of a friend of Quartet I.

"Light"

Director and screenwriter Anton Kolomeets (“Your Tutor”) made a dramatic film about rethinking the past. In an interview with Arguments and Facts, the director admitted that the prototype for the main character was his mother.

“While working on the script, I asked her to tell stories from her youth and her life today. Then he transformed them into his story and came up with a script. Therefore, my mother’s life became my heart, mentally and documented,” Kolomeets explained.

The main character Tatyana (Elena Yakovleva) is on the verge of her 60th birthday. Her life has turned out great: she has a beloved husband, a son who will definitely come to her mother’s birthday, and friends. In addition, Tanya is respected by many for her work in the care service for the elderly.

One day, a man named Dmitry turns to Tanya for help. He is looking for a nurse for a relative, but refuses the woman’s services after hearing her way of speaking. Tatyana is offended by the behavior of her new acquaintance. In search of the reason for her reaction, she mentally returns to the past when she was still young and analyzes what prompted her to choose this profession and how she became the way she is.

The film was awarded the main prize of the feature film competition at the Russian festival “Vyborg 2023”, as well as a special mention “For the best acting ensemble”. In addition, the film received the Armen Medvedev prize in the “Vyborg Account” competition.