Director Dmitry Suvorov shoots the disaster film "One" about the tragedy of Larisa Savitskaya, who in 1981 became the only survivor of a plane crash, which killed 37 people.

At the moment, the most difficult part of filming is taking place, namely the reconstruction of the collision of aircraft.

For the filming process, which began in August and should end in November, the filmmakers even purchased a real An-24, in order to accurately show the situation in which Savitskaya happened to be.

The release of the film is scheduled for December 2021.

Two lives of Larisa Savitskaya

On August 24, 1981, after a collision of a passenger An-24 with a Tu-16K bomber in the sky over the Amur Region, a resident of Blagoveshchensk Larisa Savitskaya glided to the ground from a height of 5220 meters for about eight minutes right in a chair on a detached piece of fuselage measuring 3x4 meters.

A fragment of the plane fell in the deep taiga.

The trees softened the blow.

After the fall, the young woman was unconscious for several hours, and when she woke up, she saw the chair in which the deceased husband was sitting.

Young people signed in the spring and returned by this flight from a honeymoon trip.

Rescuers found Savitskaya only on the third day of the search.

  • © Photo from the personal archive of Larisa Savitskaya

A 20-year-old student sustained spinal injuries, fractured arms and ribs, and lost almost all of her teeth.

According to Savitskaya herself, she received 75 rubles of compensation as a survivor of a plane crash and another 150 rubles for her deceased husband.

Larisa was twice included in the Russian edition of the Guinness Book of Records - as a survivor after falling from a height of 5200 m and as receiving the minimum amount of compensation for physical damage. 

Five years after the disaster, in 1986, Larisa gave birth to a son.

She was able to turn the tragic page in her life, find herself in a new field - psychophysiology - and now, together with her second husband, she is developing polygraphs, being quite a happy person.

Savitskaya told RT how she reacted to the idea of ​​a film about the tragedy that happened to her, why she agreed to participate in the project and because of what she does not like to remember the past.

“At first I really didn't want to participate in all this”

- How did you find out about the idea of ​​making a film about the terrible tragedy that happened to you?

What was your first reaction?

- I didn't recognize anything myself.

This director Dima Suvorov called me and said that he had such a desire: to make a film.

If you want, shoot ... Of course, at first I really didn’t want to participate in all this: stir up memories, live again, you know, there’s little pleasant.

But after a few days of deliberation, I decided that, in fact, the idea was good.

And it is good because with modern approaches to shooting, you can do everything so that it looks not just a horror story or some kind of scary story, but a clear illustration of what happens during a plane crash.

In addition, of course, I was supported by my relatives, my husband and son.

This, perhaps, played a decisive role - without them I would not agree.

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- Were there any special conditions on your part for this, or did you immediately agree?

- I did not agree right away, because I never understood why picking the patient just like that.

Therefore, I set the following condition: we will pick, but with benefit - so that both you and us.

The fact is that as psychophysiologists my husband and I saw in this whole situation an opportunity for experiment. 

So when the screenwriter came to us to record my memories, we created a separate program module for this interview, which is now called the “interview”.

The experiment itself consisted in the fact that I connected the scriptwriter to sensors for the parallel recording of emotions - and a kind of feedback was obtained.

And for a whole week the scriptwriter and I worked like this: we both connected to the sensors, I remembered, she kept a record, and the computer processed the feedback.

This was the main condition that everyone agreed to, and did not dispute.

- What do you like most about this project - the script, the director, the idea itself? 

- I definitely like the idea.

It is simple, but very vital, I am ready for it, as they say, "stand up".

It lies in the fact that if you fight, then fight to the end, even when you feel that there is no way out.

I supported this project largely because I was saved in due time by a shot from one film, "Miracles still happen."

It showed how a girl shrinks in a chair during a plane crash: I remembered this moment during the crash and repeated it.

I have such a hope that this film will be able to help someone.

But I haven't read the script - and I won't.

It is enough for me to know that the plane crash itself will be completely reconstructed.

I don’t want to pull myself for the sick one more time - why?

But my husband read, and he liked it, and I trust him.

  • © Photo from the personal archive of Larisa Savitskaya

- Was your participation in the project limited only to memories of what you experienced or did you have any requirements or wishes that were taken into account by the creators of the picture?

- I took part only as a consultant.

There was only one requirement about the script: recording my memories under sensors for parallel recording of emotions.

"This film is about overcoming yourself"

- How would you answer the question - what is this film about?

How will it be of interest to the current generation?

- If in one sentence - this film is about overcoming yourself, your human weakness.

I think it will be of interest to any generation, because there are so-called common themes for all: death, love, overcoming.

And all this will be in the film.

- Did you manage to communicate with the actors participating in the filming?

- I did not take part in the casting, but it so happened that in August I came directly to the shooting of the film in the Perm Territory: we communicated with the film crew, actors.

Before arrival, we talked on the phone - various moments in the film were specified.

I have a good attitude towards the actors of this project: they are all very energetic, young and talented.

  • © Press service of the film company SSB-Kino

- How permissible for you is some deviation in the script from the real situation and are there such episodes in the film?

- Let's just say it is quite acceptable.

I believe that if the film is fiction, then the director has the right to fiction.

There are such episodes in the film, and Dima and I agreed on them: with something I agreed, with something not very much, but this is not a reason to deprive the director of the right to creativity, as it seems to me.

It's not a documentary after all.

- There were reports that the relatives of your husband, who died in a plane crash, reacted negatively to the idea of ​​creating a picture of this tragedy ...

- They didn't call me and didn't talk to me.

Something was printed in the newspaper about their negative attitude, but I somehow, to be honest, did not even take it seriously at first, I thought it was “fake”.

If there really was a need to discuss this, to somehow motivate your position, then why not - you would find an opportunity to get in touch, I think so.

- In the press there were scant mentions that after the tragedy your life was very difficult, especially in the 90s ...

- Yes, you know, in the 90s it was not easy for everyone.

And somehow I don't want to complain about life, especially after so many years: what happened is gone.

I don't like to remember the past.

You see, it seems to me that there is one very important flaw in it: the past cannot be changed or corrected.

Therefore, I do not like to delve into it - I do not see the point.