World premiere of the film Sunshine Nikite Mikhalkova was held in Belgrade because of the closeness of the Russian and Serbian people, as the director states, but also because of the support and refuge that the White Guards found in Serbia after the Revolution, cooperation with Serbian actors, editors and other filmmakers who participated in the realization of this film. and on the occasion of the film's birthday, which is "celebrated with friends". The premiere was marked by an emotional performance by the actor and director Mikhalkov, his singing, hugging and kissing with his loved ones, and free birthday wine and vodka for all visitors to the "Sava" Center after the film. President Tomislav Nikolić walked the red carpet accompanied by his wife Dragica, dressed in an elegant satin green-blue blouse and black skirt, director Emir Kusturica, minister Zorana and other distinguished guests. The hall was packed.
WHITE AND GREY RUSSIA: Nikita Mikhalkov's film Sunshine filmed in the Crimea and in the Odesa area two years ago, based on the works of the Russian writer Ivan Bunin. The director, as he says, has been working for years on a story about a disgraced White Guardsman in a collection center in Crimea who is waiting to return home or somewhere else and wonders how it came to be. The protagonist asks this question throughout the film, but there is no answer. There is only before and after: gray uniforms in the camp and white memories of past days. And a long blue scarf that flies like a bird in the wind over the deck of the steamer, as if it were alive.
At the beginning of the film, the footage of the registration of the defeated White Guards in the Crimea becomes difficult. The year is 1920, the White Guards of Imperial Russia lost the war to the Red Army, the remaining White Guards were evacuated to a camp. Lieutenants and captains report to a sympathetic representative of the new government and leave their military insignia, with more or less resistance. There are officers of noble origin who wonder why learning French, reading Dostoyevsky and playing the piano, there are peasants and Cossacks. They don't know how long they will be in the camp or what will happen to them, and while they wait they talk about the greats of Russian culture and cry over the grave of Tsarist Russia. In charge of their case is Zemljakinka, a notorious communist official, young and cruel. It is clear to the viewers that everyone will be killed.
In the film, contrasting plans from two pasts on two waters alternate all the time - a steamship on the Volga and a camp close to the Black Sea, splendor and disarray. Due to a premonition of an imminent violent death, the hero summons moments of absolute happiness. On a steamer sailing on the Volga, a young lieutenant meets an unknown woman with a petite build and a narrow waist. The year is 1907, the lieutenant is engaged, and the stranger is married and has a child. They stare at each other, and look at each other without saying a word until the lieutenant makes a concrete proposal - to get off the ship and rent a hotel room in a small town. After a stormy night, the stranger returns to the ship while the lieutenant sleeps, leaving behind letters of once-in-a-lifetime love and passion ("and never again," crossed out). We do not know what happened to the unknown woman and the lieutenant afterwards. We see the protagonist 13 years later, defeated and overweight in a collection center in Crimea, where he will not recognize his future executioner.
The scenario of Mikhalkov's film was based on Bunin's story Sunshine from 1907, and according to Bunin's diaries Damned days from 1920; it was reworked 11 times within 37 years. The protagonists of the film are the young actors Martins Kalita and Victoria Solovyova, completely new faces in the film. One of the notable roles in the film is played by the Serbian actor Miloš Biković, the editing was entrusted to Mica Zajec, who also participated in the development of the script, while the other crew was led by Stanislav Popović. The film lasts three hours and a quarter of a minute, and is not recommended for viewers-editors who see excesses in scenes and have a solution for effective editing.
FILM AND GEOPOLITICS: Mikhalkov said that he did not foresee the problems related to Crimea when he was making this film because the idea for it arose a long time ago. At the press conference held before the Belgrade premiere, he answered a British journalist's question about the situation in Crimea: "And what should I explain to you? Crimea is ours!" Double Venice laureate with the film Sunshine he was not invited to the Venice Festival. The director believes that it was done for political reasons, and in support of that thesis, he states that he was not even given an answer. In an interview published in "Politica" after the premiere, Nikita Mikhalkov ironically says that they could have released it and then talked about how bad the film was... He says that the rejection of the Venice commission did not affect him. "Maybe I'm cocky, but I don't think it's such a bad movie." My brother (Andrej Konchalovsky) and I already have several gold and silver lions (Mostra awards). I thought, if it won't be in the competitive selection, they can show it out of competition, so if the film is bad, let the journalists crucify me. "However, the commission from Venice did not answer me, not even out of courtesy," he said.
The film was characterized in the Western press as pro-Putin. Realistically, the film is as pro-Russian as a bunch of pro-American or pro-other films of similar content. He is most amorous. In ten years, or when and if the Ukrainian crisis passes, we will see Nikita Mikhalkova's film as a story about love and passion - you will burn and feel sick if you expose yourself too much to the sun's rays, run to the shade and save the romance. And how it came about and whose Crimea it is, it won't matter even if there is nothing left of Crimea.
