A top-class acting duo, perhaps in the most poignant film adaptation of Viktor Astafiev. In a deep forest, the hunter finds a dying girl. The illiterate Akim works wonders of ingenuity, saving the uninvited guest from death. But in order to survive, young people will need to leave the winter hut and go out to the people, which means they will fight death in the cold, cruel taiga ...
... In the distant summer of 1996, I read the book "Tsar-fish" not of my own free will. Just a strict literature teacher made us a reading list for the summer, and in the fall I and the whole class were to write an essay based on the book. Then I did not even suspect about the film adaptation, as well as the fact that the film would subsequently amaze the imagination and be remembered so much.
I must say that screenwriter Albina Shulgina created a real miracle from Astafyev's text, worthy of the greatest award. By the way, the book of V. P. Astafiev in 1978 was awarded the highest award of the USSR - the State Prize, albeit with significant censorship exemptions, which subsequently greatly affected the health of Viktor Petrovich, already undermined by the war. And a year later, the same adaptation of Vl. Fetina (real fam. Fetingof) is the director's penultimate film, only this can explain its great quality. Filming a movie in an acute shortage of funds and time pressure. Apparently, for this reason, the so-called. "Moscow scenes", for which Tatyana Piletskaya was invited to the role of the mother of the main character. Contrary to popular misconception on the Web, the film is not based solely on the events of the chapter "Dream of the White Mountains." It would be more correct to say that it was filmed based on the entire story of "Tsar Fish", which is clearly stated in the opening credits. For example, Akim's famous monologue "Why did my mother give birth to me? .." is borrowed from the chapter "Wake". As it happened with the literary source, the film was pretty battered by the Soviet censors (Astafyev even claimed that he was put "on the shelf"). At the box office, it was shown with bills, and in the post-Soviet period several minutes of timing "disappeared" from it (the scenes are mainly associated with Goga Gertsev). An attentive viewer will surely notice that the key scene with the overturning of the raft into the icy water is missing from the film. Subsequently, the taiga masterpiece was safely forgotten - and only this can explain that it has never been restored or published on DVD.
The music for the film was written by the legendary Soviet composer Solovyov-Sedoy (the last work for the cinema). This work was carried out during a period of serious illness, and the composer did not live to see the premiere for only a month. By the way, in the scene with the feast in the winter quarters, where Elya turns the radio up louder, a slightly modified melody of "Moscow Nights" is heard - one of the most recognizable motifs of the 20th century, which became the call sign of the radio "Mayak". This is a rather subtle allusion to the merits, without a doubt, of the great melodist, who has worked very successfully with Vladimir Fetin in recent years.
The Tale belongs to a number of outstanding adaptations of Russian classical prose. She practically has no equal neither in the genre of an acting duet, nor in the genre of films on the taiga theme. She, one might say, has no analogues in both Soviet and post-Soviet cinema.
And further. Perhaps the most important thing. This is a very Russian film.
