Eight (film)

1999 year . Tiny provincial town. Hera is a young riot police officer. Rustle, Lykov and Sin are his three best friends. The film begins with a scene of brutal dispersal by riot policemen of striking factory workers, among whom is the father of one of the heroes. Then there is a fight with gangsters at a local restaurant, during which Hera suddenly falls in love with the girl of authority Buts, which causes a deadly confrontation between the four frostbitten riot policemen and the gangsters who keep the entire city under control.

The name of the picture, as well as the literary source, was given by the car model “LADA Samara” VAZ-2108 , which the film characters drive ^[3] . In Toronto, the picture was called “Break loose” (“Break the Chain” or “Without Brakes”), since the name “Eight” in English is not clear to the audience. The director notes that the title of "Break loose" laid the heroes' desire for freedom, emancipation, which is very important for the film ^[2] .

Preparations for the shooting

Director Alexei Uchitel read the story of Zakhar Prilepin "The Eight" before the official publication. Having decided to film it, he turned to the author with a proposal to write a script, but Prilepin refused, "because this story for him, as he explained, is past, finished, he did not want to excite himself." It is known that this is the personal story of the author. The script was written by Alexander Mindadze , with whom the Teacher worked on the film “ Cosmos as a Premonition ”. But Zakhar Prilepin took part in the discussion of details and in the casting ^[4] .

Shooting

Filming took place in Kronstadt ^[3] and at the Kirov plant in St. Petersburg . The Kirov factory, according to the director, is a whole city with its own railway. Gloomy, with a special aura, similar to all cities. There, the crew had a unique opportunity to quietly shoot at night ^[5] . The Center of Contemporary Art by Sergey Kuryokhin in St. Petersburg acted as the nightclub "Jogi".

Fifty fighters of the present St. Petersburg riot police took part in the film. The scene in which the riot police restrains the crowd was shot as a documentary, and the fighters had to hold 700 extras, for which the director set the task to break through the cordon ^[6] .

The film was shot by cameraman Yury Klimenko , who worked with Alexey Uchitel on the last six films. The young cameraman Alexander Demyanenko took part in the filming of the second camera ^[4] .

In one of the episodes at the beginning of the film in the small role of the driver involved in the carting, the author himself appeared in the story on which the film was shot - Zakhar Prilepin. Director Alexei Uchitel thought it would be a purely symbolic appearance of the writer on the screen, but he turned out to be a surprisingly good actor - with humor and comedic makings ^[3] .

Film critic Anton Dolin saw in the romantic confrontation of riot police and bandits involuntary summing up the results of the Russian XX century. He believes that “the G8” is one of the best films of Alexey Teacher. Energetic, dynamic, modern; Erotica, car chases, fights - adrenaline in its pure form " ^[7] . The critic notes the excellent casting and fine, extraordinary camera work of Yuri Klimenko.

Interlocutor Editor Konstantin Bakanov notes that the difference between the writer and the director has led to serious dissonance. “The gangster“ moss ”from the 90s (and this is the element of Zakhar Prilepin) is enough in the frame. On the other hand, the Master’s efforts to combat this scourge are visible: it was important for him that the film be as different as possible from countless gangster television series. But in the end, the director never reached the real festival cinema ” ^[8] .

• "Eight" (Eng.) On the Internet Movie Database