The Inhabited Island
Short description
In the year 2157, a young pilot of the Free Search Group named Maxim Kammerer crash-lands on Saraksh, an unknown planet from which he cannot immediately leave. He soon finds that its human inhabitants live among the ruins left by a nuclear war, with a damaged environment, deep social tensions and a peace that could collapse at any moment. Saraksh is secretly controlled by five anonymous rulers who use special transmitters to shape what people think. Maxim befriends a local brother and sister, Rada and Guy Gaal, and is drawn into resistance against the planet's regime.
The film is a Russian science fiction adventure directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk, the second of his features following 9th Company in 2005. It is based on the novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The screenplay was written by Marina Dyachenko, Serhiy Dyachenko and Eduard Volodarskiy, and Bondarchuk produced with Aleksander Rodnyansky and Sergey Melkumov. Vasiliy Stepanov plays Maxim, with Pyotr Fyodorov, Yuliya Snigir, Sergey Garmash, Mikhail Evlanov and Bondarchuk himself among the cast. Made for about 37 million dollars, it took roughly 24 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.1 from around 6,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.3 from about 115 votes, indicating a modest audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, Hans Zimmer was supposed to compose the music for the film. This ultimately proved impossible due to time constraints.
- Dozens of special makeup and hairstyle options were developed for the film's heroes.
- Technical fabric – a thin material laminated with polyethylene – was used for the costumes of the extras in the imperial city. It refracts light, creating an interesting effect on camera. The difficulty lies in the fact that it is not easy to be in such costumes, especially during filming in hot Crimea.
- The recording of the film's soundtrack utilized collector's guitars previously owned by Sting, Keith Richards, and members of the band "Led Zeppelin".
- The first draft of the script was written by Eduard Volodarsky. It did not entirely satisfy the director, who then commissioned science fiction writers Marina and Sergey Dyachenko to rewrite it.
- The filming involved 9 T-64 tanks and 4 BTR armored personnel carriers.
- Approximately 3,000 costumes were designed and made for the film (artists developed 10 clothing options for the main character alone). Some costumes were hand-embroidered with crystals from Swarovski, which also created an exclusive line of 200 pieces of jewelry specifically for the film. Another 400 pairs of shoes were made, as well as 50 exclusive handbag designs.
- Over 7,000 extras participated, 3,000 costumes and 400 pairs of shoes were made, 300 original firearms were designed, approximately 450 kg of makeup and 1,350 kg of pyrotechnics (TNT equivalent) were used.
- The filming locations were extremely extensive. Starting on February 14, 2007, in Moscow, the crew embarked on a long expedition. The entire Crimean Peninsula served as a location for the filming crew.
- The filming period for the film lasted 222 days. During this time, enough material was shot for two feature-length films.
- The computer model of the city in "Roadside Picnic" contains 13,500 unique buildings.
- In the 30th minute of the film, the 'father' says the phrase "erase him from the face of the Earth" (this expression refers to the planet Earth, not 'soil'). The action takes place on the Sarax planet, and the natives are unaware of the existence of Earth.
- Irreparable damage was inflicted on the flora and fauna of Crimea during the filming of the tank battle on the territory of the Kazantip Nature Reserve.
- The film is based on the novella "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky brothers (1969).
- 300 sets were constructed at the main filming locations in Moscow and Crimea, meticulously recreating the material world of the distant future on the planet Sarax – from a spaceship and a white submarine to urban alien landscapes of the 22nd century, an abandoned industrial zone, and a fantastical city of outcasts and mutants.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
