In 2006, a feature film was released about dysfunctional teenagers who were used in organizing sabotage operations during the Great Patriotic War. The film “Bastards” received a huge response. Actors who play leading roles, despite their young age, have gained wide popularity. But the reliability of the historical events that formed the basis of the plot aroused doubts and disputes.
The story "Bastards"
The work of Vladimir Kunin is dedicated to the fate of street children. During the war years, being unattended by adults, they were left to their own devices. The plot of the story is vaguely reminiscent of the cult novel "Children of the Sand" by the famous Brazilian writer Jorge Amado, according to which the film of the same name was shot in 1971. The significant difference between these two films is that it is not easy to doubt the veracity of the Brazilian work, while the version of the existence of a sabotage school, whose children became street children, was criticized and subsequently, as a result of a little historical research, was refuted.
The unique story told by the ambiguous author interested the director Alexander Atanesyan, who decided at the beginning of 2005 to start shooting the film “Bastards”. Actors were involved both famous and unfamiliar to the viewer.
Scenario
Perhaps the rumors that the plot of the story, and therefore the film, are the facts from the biography of Vladimir Kunin, were a spectacular marketing move. Indeed, reality and truthfulness always attract movie fans. However, the film, shot according to a scenario on a historical theme, should certainly have been evaluated by an expert historical commission, which did not happen before the sensational picture came out.
At the request of Atanesyan, Vladimir Kunin wrote the script “Bastards”. Actors - both beginners and experienced ones - had to fulfill difficult roles. They were faced with the task of creating on-screen images of people who found themselves in a difficult situation when they need to go to a feat not for the sake of fame and honor, but only in order to survive. After all, the heroes of the film are juvenile raiders and thieves. They are superfluous people, no one will remember their possible death. And they are successful contenders for the role of suicide bombers.
For some time, the author of the story and script claimed to be a prototype of one of the characters in the film "Bastards." Actors of the main composition were selected from the age category that Kunin himself during the war years, when by coincidence he was left without parental care. However, archival documents that were raised after the scandal surrounding the film showed that all the autobiographical story is only in this coincidence.
Main roles
Despite the grandiose scandal, which, incidentally, is often preceded by popularity, the film “Bastards” had huge box office. Actors, whose biography in the movie began precisely with the release of this film, woke up famous the day after the premiere.
Alexander Golovin, who was previously known to viewers (primarily from the popular TV series "Cadets"), entered the world of cinema at the age of nine. But in the picture of Atanesyan, he played his first serious role. The image of a young recidivist had so little in common with a charming cadet from a prosperous family, which, perhaps, this contrast served as an impetus in Golovin's further acting career. The film involved not only young actors, but also children who, a year before the start of filming, could not imagine that they would one day be on the set.
Homeless Actor
Interesting facts are present in the history of the film "Bastards." Actors are sometimes so far removed in real life from the heroes that viewers see on the screen that any identification can cause surprise and a smile. But the film crew of Alexander Atanesyan also included a personality whose biography, although very distantly, still resembles the life of a fictional character.
Surnames of famous stars are found in the credits for the film "Bastards." The main actors, however, in this film are not only professionals, but also those who accidentally hit the screen.
Sergei Rychenkov, who plays the role of Tyapa, knows about the life of a teenager, deprived or completely deprived of parental attention, firsthand. The boy grew up in a boarding school near Moscow, where a film crew once visited. Casting was conducted to select the main performers, where Sergey appeared with a black eye. This appearance from the first seconds attracted the attention of representatives of the Atanesyan group.
Fatal movie
The fact that the film is based on real events, the scriptwriter has repeatedly said. At that time, when the film “Bastards” was still only in the project, the actors and roles were not yet known to the audience, the picture already interested critics and fans of Russian cinema. First of all, thanks to Kunin's colorful stories about his homeless childhood. The writer told how he was once thrown as a teenager behind enemy lines, where he should have taken part in covert operations. Kunin later admitted that this story is nothing more than fiction.
Whether the director believed the scriptwriter is unknown, but for many actors this recognition was a surprise. There is also a version that evil rock pursues the participants of the film "Bastards". The actors and the roles they performed have some kind of fatal connection. So, the role of uncle Pasha’s storekeeper became one of the last for Andrei Krasko. Three years after the release of the film, a young actor Vasily Lykshin died of a heart attack . The sudden death also overtook Andrei Panin.
Criticism
According to the story of Vladimir Kunin, it was hardly possible to make a series. Actors of the series "Bastards" and the roles that they would play would not stand up to criticism. And it is unlikely that he would be able to attract the attention of viewers, because the success of the film was caused by a unique and implausible plot and bright cast. Even before the release of the picture, an argument broke out. The discussion was opened by veterans and historians. According to them, there was no and could not be a death camp for juvenile delinquents.
Prize
The creators of the film had only one argument for this statement: Vladimir Kunin himself was one of these teenagers and miraculously survived. The dispute has acquired serious proportions, and FSB officers became interested in the reliability of the events that the author of the Bastards spoke of. As a result, archival documents were raised, and it turned out that the school for minor saboteurs did exist in the forties, but the organizers were not Soviet, but German officers.
There is an assumption that Kunin refused his statements precisely because of his unwillingness to disclose the true facts of his biography. One way or another, a flurry of criticism fell upon the writer, based on the charge of denigrating the heroic years in the history of the Soviet Union. The culmination of a grandiose scandal was the refusal of Vladimir Menshov to give a film award. According to the Oscar-winning director, the film dishonors Russia and has nothing to do with the true events of World War II.
Nevertheless, despite the scandalous fame, the film "Bastards" was awarded the MTV Award. And even with a huge number of criticisms, it is worthy of attention - if only because of the extremely strong cast and excellent directorial work.