The Golden Horde will look like Game of Thrones
An ambitious project – The Golden Horde film consisting of 16 series – has been presented at the Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema. Spectators of Channel 1 will see it at the beginning of the next year. It is curious that Ak Bars Bank from Tatarstan became one of the financing organisations of the series. Realnoe Vremya visited the project's presentation.
''It is not a historical film!''
The series' producer Ruben Dishdishyan told from the beginning: ''It is not a historical film. One should not judge it by historical standards. We created a story about people, love, betrayal, loyalty. We wanted to make something that will look like The Magnificent Century or Game of Thrones.
The series is almost ready. It will be given to Channel 1 in January. Spectators will probably already see it in February or March next year. Now the company that made The Magnificent Century, which was sold in 82 countries, is interested in it. The company's representatives suppose that The Golden Horde can also be sold successfully. The Golden Horde will already be presented at a TV festival in Cannes this October already. Its international history will probably start from this presentation.
Ak Bars Bank from Tatarstan became one of the sponsors of the series. But the sum we are talking about is unknown. Dishdishyan evaded the answer having told that it was a commercial secret. Initially, it was told that the series would be shot in Tatarstan. But then it turned out the shooting in Crimea was cheaper, and the series' budget was limited. This is why the shooting took place in Crimea, near Moscow and in pavilions in the end.
A big number of Tatarstan artists were invited for the casting. As a result, three of them were in the series – singer and actress Elmira Kalimullina, she performed one of the big roles – the maid of the khan's favourite wife, a kind and womanly girl. Apart from Kalimullina, residents of Tatarstan Nafisa Khairullina and Ramil Sabitov participated in the series. In addition, the casting took place in several regions and even China besides Tatarstan.
The series was shot quickly – the shooting lasted for 135 days, the turns were long – about 12-14 hours. 150 people participated in the biggest one, which can't be called a record. As for costumes, there were sewed 2,000 suits. Although Dishdishyan told in the beginning that the series could be considered as a historical film only, three historians supervised it.
People who were at the presentation of the project asked whether the film would be single-minded – the Russians are good while the Horde people are all bad. Unfortunately, there were such precedents. Ruben Dishdisyan calmed them down: ''There won't be a slant in the series. Both sides had different people.''
Director of the series Timur Alpatov who defined the film's genre as historical drama doesn't know where the opinion that Mongols were dirty and uneducated came from. ''Their majority are representatives of the supreme race, educated people, who smell well and dress well. It is absolutely wrong to show them as wild men,'' the director fairly thinks.
''I was offered another role first''
The presentation began with two long teasers. After watching them, the audience had an impression of quite a dynamic film. The film crew was represented by Elmira Kalimullina and Ruben Dishdishyan at the presentation. According to Kalimullina, the invitation for the casting was a complete surprise for her because the film's advertisement doesn't have her photos. Nevertheless, she was invited to Moscow. ''It was a tale of my life!'' the singer emotionally noted.
She was invited for a screen test of one role. As a result, after the casting, she was offered another one – Zeynap's maid. It is a character that is completely opposite to the role Kalimullina tested first. And the singer accepted it with pleasure. The story of The Golden Horde tells about the events in the 13th century when Rus faced the Horde people's raid.
The intrigue is around several love stories, the fight for the throne, betrayal and perfidy. Aleksandr Ustyugov, Yulia Peresild, Sergey Puskepalis, Svetlana Kolpakova and others starred in the film. The heroes of the film are not historical figures but invented characters.
'' The Golden Horde is a film about feelings and passions, an imaginative story about the human relationship. Which of the plot conflicts of our story can be called main? Probably the conflict that our rulers – Great Knyaz Yaroslav and Great Khan Berke – go through equally dramatically. Both are torn by internal contradictions between the necessity to be a perfect example for their servants and a desire to feel simple human happiness – to love and be loved,'' film producer Elena Denisevich thinks.
Ruben Dishdishyan gave to understand that the story of The Golden Horde heroes would probably continue. The film will be shown at prime time. And if it has high ratings and the audience of Channel 1 reaches 30 million people, the film crew is ready to continue the shooting. And the producer did not exclude that the continuation of the series would be shot in Tatarstan.
The presentation ended quite impressive. Frames from The Golden Horde's teaser were on the screen and Elmira Kalimullina who was standing next to the screen performed a beautiful and sad song from the series.