In 2013, after a year and a half of testing, filming and editing, the joint work of the masters of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine - the film "The Son of the Father of Peoples" - was released. This series was another attempt to look into history and tell about the life of Joseph Stalin. This time, the director and producers of the film decided to illuminate the unknown side of the leader’s life, to tell about his son Vasily.
Film crew
The screenwriter of the picture was an outstanding playwright from Ukraine - Eduard Yakovlevich Volodarsky. From his pen came out more than eighty scripts, which later became full-length films. This time, Eduard Volodarsky decided to touch on a historical topic, which in many ways claims to be a documentary.
The directors of the picture were Sergey Ginzburg and Sergey Shcherbin. Ginzburg has repeatedly shot series about the life of interesting personalities from the past. In his piggy bank there are works about Joseph Stalin. The film "The Son of the Father of Peoples", the actors for which passed a lengthy casting, claimed the title of historical series.
The film was produced by the creative tandem of Anatoly Chizhov and Sergey Kulikov.
Plot
The film "Son of the Father of Nations" tells the viewer a "reliable" story about the tragic fate of Vasily, the beloved offspring of Joseph Stalin. The life of a young and very talented guy was full of sharp twists of fate. A fearless pilot from God, a fan of playing hockey and football, Vasily was distinguished by his unbridled disposition and craving for alcohol.
At 25, he bore the rank of lieutenant general, and was a universal favorite. After the death of his father, Vasily Stalin was imprisoned for eight years for "anti-Soviet propaganda." The former minion of fate after rehabilitation lived in Kazan and died in complete poverty in unclear circumstances.
Gela Meskhi - Vasily Stalin
Casting for the role of Vasily Stalin, according to the young star of the series Gela Meskhi, was very lengthy and painful. For about a month, the director tried a lot of actors, and everyone was not enough. After sleepless nights and a lot of overstrain, Gela Meskhi came to another audition at the request of the director. As the actor himself admits, he was so morally exhausted that he simply let go of the situation and played an excerpt with Messing in the same breath, with the thought in his head: "Be what happens." The episode turned out to be dramatic - Gela was hysterical, laughed, cried, shouted, threw furniture. After this test, Sergey Ginzburg saw in Gel those features that were necessary in order to transform into the son of the Leader of the Peoples.
The painting "The Son of the Father of Peoples", whose actors were to fully get used to their characters, became a serious test for Gela. During the filming, he had a certain nervous breakdown, the actor recovered by 10 kg.
Anatoly Dzivaev - "Stalin" of Russian cinema
Anatoly Dzivaev, Honored Artist of Russia, was invited to the role of the “father of peoples” . Due to his appearance and oriental temperament, the actor constantly plays colorful men. Surprisingly, the image of Stalin haunts the artist throughout his career. Of the thirty paintings in the filmography of the actor in five of them, he turned into Joseph Vissarionovich.
In one of the interviews, the actor admitted that the image of Stalin today is considered exclusively from the perspective of an ordinary person who lived, loved, made mistakes, worried about the fate of his children.
Cinematic wives of Vasily Stalin
The film "Son of the Father of the Nations" gathered a brilliant galaxy of future movie stars. The actors, despite their youth, turned out to be true professionals in their field, masterfully embodied the images on the screen. Casting on the role of the wives of Vasily Stalin, and he had them, according to historians, had four official and countless number of mistresses, lasted several weeks. The director even laughed at Gela, saying that on these samples he kissed all the young actresses in Moscow.
As a result, after numerous trials for the role of the first wife, Ginsburg approved Marina Vorozhishcheva. The image of the second wife, Ekaterina Timoshenko, embodied on the screens of Maria Andreeva. The third official companion of Vasily, the athlete Kapitolina Vasilyeva, was played by Maryana Spivak. The authors of the series decided not to mention the fourth companion of Stalin's son.
Supporting Actors
The backbone of the picture, according to the director, was to be made up of little-known personalities. The only exception was Nadezhda Mikhalkova, who played in the series Svetlana Alliluyev. According to the actress herself, her height is much higher than that of Vasily’s sister. On the set, Nadezhda never appeared in heels.
In the film "The Son of the Father of Peoples", the director of which very scrupulously approached the choice of actors, more mature and recognizable movie figures were also shot: Sergei Gazaev, Yuri Maslak, Evgeny Knyazev, Yuri Lakhin, Ilya Ermolov, Alexander Nikolsky and others.
Reviews from viewers and critics
The film "The Son of the Father of Peoples", whose actors faithfully portrayed their characters, received mixed reviews among viewers and film critics. From an artistic point of view, the picture is set correctly, the characters are thought out, the main storyline of the picture is revealed. This is what the audience noticed, the rating of views and positive reviews of the film is high.
From the point of view of historical authenticity, there are a lot of gaps that the director and screenwriter did not want to fill and finalize.
Regarding the acting work of the protagonist, he earned the recognition of not only the audience, but also the director. Sergey Ginzburg invited Gela to star in his next film. By the way, Alexander Bourdonsky is the only son of Vasily Stalin, who speaks very ironically of many attempts by directors and actors to portray his relatives, the work of the young Meskha favorably. He admitted that the main character was both in appearance and temperament like his father.
Despite criticism and mixed reviews from viewers, a multi-part television film about Vasily Stalin has become one of the most successful films about the life of this interesting person.