“Prisoner of the Caucasus” is a cult film of Soviet times, which many people have watched with pleasure dozens of times. He was pulled away for quotes for a long time, and millions of spectators are happy to sing a song about bears that rotate the Earth’s axis.
Crimean Caucasus Mountains
Cinema has a very distant relation to reality: someone will say: deception, someone is an illusion. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that the place where the "Caucasian Captive" was filmed is geographically located far from the Caucasus peaks. Almost throughout the film, Crimean landscapes are shown to viewers.
The only thing that was not found on the peninsula was a rather full-flowing mountain river, which Shurik, who was stuck in a sleeping bag, had to force. Thanks to this, you can also find Sochi in the enumeration of places where they shot the "Caucasian Captive", in fact the city itself does not appear in the film. The scene of the miraculous rescue of the protagonist takes place on
the Mzymta River, between the resort of Krasnaya Polyana and Adler. These shots are one of the few episodes of the film related to the geographical Caucasus.
Another moment, shot near the river, is a crashed barrel, on which Shurik and Edik raced along the mountain road, trying to save the kidnapped Nina. Almost the rest of the "nature" was shot on the South Coast.
Famous walnut
The Crimean mountain range Demerdzhi (located 10 kilometers from Alushta) appears in the role of the Caucasus peaks. Here, in the territory where the "Caucasian Captive" was filmed, the famous giant nut grows, from the fork of which Nikulin threw improvised "shells", inadvertently knocking the eyes of his own comrade-in-arms - Morgunov.
The tree is the pride of the locals, a real watchman. He is already more than fifty years old, and the trunk in girth reaches three meters. A nearby tablet reads: “Nikulinsky walnut,” and many tourists consider it a matter of honor to take a picture.
Exposing dishonest businessmen
A couple of steps away is a two-meter stone rock, on which (according to local enterprising citizens) Nina sang Shuriku a song about bears. Such a swindle for a long time haunted many connoisseurs and fans of the film: they claimed that this place has not the slightest relation to the stone where the "Caucasian Captive" was shot: fortunately, there are very recognizable landscapes in the Crimea.
According to them, relatively recently, an “authentic boulder” was discovered: it is also located relatively close to the “Nikulinsky walnut”, only a hundred meters away. But climbing into it now would be problematic: the area is overgrown with rose hips and blackberries. Tourists do not burn with their thorns with a special desire to get to know closer.
Pilgrimage of tourists
Each Crimean proudly tells in which city they filmed the "Caucasian Captive": the places of stay of famous heroes in Alushta have long turned into a tourist attraction. Locals retell endless stories and legends associated with the film. These myths are juicy and colorful, but not all of them are true.
So, some enthusiasts claim that one of the buildings where they shot the "Caucasian Captive" is the Alushta Solnechny restaurant (now it houses the UNDERWORLD club). It is there, they say, that the cunning "friends" of the groom agree with Shurik about stealing the bride. In fact, most of the indoor scenes were shot in Mosfilm pavilions, and this is no exception. The atmosphere shown in the film really resembles the interior of the restaurant, but, nevertheless, it is just the scenery.
Recognizable places
A few years ago in Simferopol, the film "Following the Trail of the" Caucasian Captive "was shot. In it, events of 50 years ago are documented very accurately and reliably.
So, the episode in which Comrade Saakhov meets the main character is actually shot in Alushta. In the frame you can see the steps where they shot the "Caucasian Captive": they connect Krapivny Lane with Baglikova Street. The house, in which Shurik and Edik run in, dressed as orderlies, was inhabited at that time and is located to the right of the Alushta Genoese tower (it can be seen in the frame). In the episode where the repentant protagonist tells the failed groom about his inadvertent participation in the abduction of Nina, in the background is the boarding house "Northern Dvina". The famous scene with the drinking of hop drinks was filmed near the local amusement park, and Morgunov gave twist lessons on the dance floor of the Chaika boarding house.
Alushta is replete with memorable places where they shot the "Caucasian Captive": photos of various relics associated with the film can be found on numerous forums and social networks. Tourists found and captured even the staircase with which Shurik jumped on a donkey: she was found in one of the Alushta courtyards, the hostess is very proud of her.
The participation of citizens and a donkey movie star
There are a great many eyewitnesses of events and their descendants in the city. Scrupulous researchers counted nearly five hundred local residents in mass scenes. According to one of the stories, the boys looking into the ballroom, where those who want to join the Western culture, dance a twist, really turned out to be on the set by chance. At first the guys got a drag, but as a result the scene was left: the improvisation of Vitsin, who ate an “unaccounted ticket”, and then swung at the annoying boys, I liked Gaidai.
Filming began on June 1 in the vicinity of Alushta: the first two days filmed Shurik's journey on his colorful stubborn horse. Ten years ago, donkey Lucy, the star of the “Caucasian Captive,” was still alive. They say that it was she who starred in the film "9 Companies". How true this is is unknown: by human standards she is already well over a hundred, because on average, the duration of a donkey’s life is about 30-40 years, and only some individuals survive to an advanced age of sixty. According to some sources, the donkey movie star was born in 1947. At the time of filming in "9th company" she should have been 58 years old.
Radiant Village
On June 3, an episode was shot with the farewell of the main characters at the base, and on the 4th - a scene in which “a student, a Komsomol member and just a beauty” demonstrates climbing talents. The rocks that Nina descends from are located near Radiant (a village near Alushta where they shot the film "Prisoner of the Caucasus"). In the same village, Shurik climbed into a sleeping bag, and Nina laughed at him.
Then cinema mystifications begin: having rolled down the Crimean slope, the main character finds himself in the already mentioned Caucasian river Mzymte. Varley recalled that the water temperature in it was about 7 degrees, so she and Demyanenko were shaking so naturally from the cold.
In a few minutes, Abkhazia will appear among the places where the "Caucasian Captive" was filmed: in the scene of the abduction of Nina, when Trus, Dunce and Byvaly meet a policeman on a motorcycle and successfully pass out a wriggling girl as a lamb, some fans of the film seem to have identified the road leading to Lake Ritsa. According to information from other sources, this scene was shot in the village of Luchistom, even a specific date is indicated - July 7, and has nothing to do with Abkhazia.
Simferopol fence
On June 8, the film crew was in Simferopol: Shurik's escape from a madhouse was captured on film. A noticeable fence, through which the hero jumps with the help of ingenious devices (and sympathetic patients), is the fence of the May 1 cannery. It is with pleasure identified by the characteristic columns both locals and tourists.
The very next day, filmmakers returned to the beloved Alushta and continued shooting imprisonment Demyanenko: scenes in the hospital garden were filmed here.
The surroundings of Alushta
In the cinema, the finale is often shot first, and then the beginning: it is not surprising that the episode of meeting Edik, cursing the day when he "sat down at the wheel of this vacuum cleaner", began only in mid-June (13th), after Shurik’s escape from psychiatric clinic. Local historians argue that the scene where the beauty Nina is followed by a stubborn donkey and then a stalled ambulance takes place on the highway between Vysoky and Kuibyshevo. The mountain, visible in the background, is called Iron - the area was identified by it.
The nearby neighborhoods abound in places where Gaidai’s "Captive of Captivity" was filmed: photos from the filming show landscapes near Alushta and Alupka (Morgunov falls asleep while chasing the runaway on the Ai-Petri serpentine).
Filming strada
In the village of Kuybyshevo, Nina and Shurik meet, then in the village of Nikita they remove the "climbing base" on which the main character first searches for and then abducts the girl.
Already on June 27, the group moved to Luchistoe, and after that the Crimean shootings were carried out only here or in Alushta. Actors and other participants enjoyed recalling these times. Numerous impromptu, unexpected funny scenes, improvised jokes - the stories of their creation have long been made public and overgrown with numerous legends.
On the last day of summer, August 31, the film crew left for Moscow, where they shot the film “The Caucasian Captive” already in the pavilions (for example, scenes in the corridors of the hospital, Saakhov’s office, police station, toasting in the restaurant).
In mid-October (from the 7th to the 14th), 12 film participants were in Alushta: it was necessary to complete some missing fragments. At this time, the final picture was finished (Nina and Shurik go to a stop, a donkey runs after a leaving minibus) and several scenes of the opening of the Wedding Palace (laughing Nina stands in a crowd of spectators). Many are trying to find an appropriate building in Alushta and even claim that this is the building of the local police, but in reality only a crowd was shot in the city, and everything else was a properly decorated courtyard of the film studio.
Remake
In 2014, a remake of the famous comedy was released, for which the general producer of the film, Fyodor Bondarchuk, along with director Maxim Voronkov, received a flurry of destructive criticism. If Gaidai chose to make his film in the Crimea, then the place where the "Caucasian Captive-2" was shot is the mountains that appear in the title. This is not surprising (commentators sarcastically note), considering that the customer and the main sponsor of the shootings was the North Caucasus Resorts company. Following the best European practices, the company decided in this way to attract tourists: to demonstrate captivating mountain views, create a positive image of the region, etc., etc.
The shooting took place including near the village of Ordzhonikidzevsky (Karachay-Cherkessia). Now the locals also have an attraction: a shaky wooden bridge across the Kuban River, where they shot the "Caucasian Captive-2". During the filming, many unknowingly called the film a continuation of the famous comedy. Of course, this is not so: the script repeats the original almost completely - the creators of the picture offer the audience to laugh at the jokes known from childhood, but the quality of their performance, unfortunately, can not be compared with what was shot almost half a century ago.