"Director Elem Klimov remembers..." "I was not satisfied with "Agony" and with myself." "Having a good, involved material, a group of fine performers, the great composer Schnittke, and the cameraman, and the designer, and the actors," "I thought I didn't rise to the occasion, that I failed to cope with those complex, superhuman states that had to be examined." "I was not ready for it." "And I developed a complex..." "of inferiority, I was dreaming of finding a new material to rehabilitate myself in my own eyes." "While many people like this film," "I looked at it very critically, and I still do." "I hadn'tyet acquired enough skill at the time." "Well, take the scene of the collapsed Rasputin wallowing in a puddle, denigrating himself just on purpose, a scene worthy of Brecht." "And then, by some mysterious way, he appears in the czar's bedroom." "And before that, the czar was talking about the need to get rid of him..." "And suddenly Rasputin appears." "Something had to be in his behavior, in his emotions, in his radiation for these people who were set against him to have suddenly broken down, which did happen, but it had to be done by masterful acting." "And I just made up some mix:" "birds flying, cupolas falling down, and so on..." "That's why I'm not satisfied with myself." "The film was completed in April, 1975." "Later, I came to Sweden... and met Sven Nykvist, Bergman's cameraman." "Well, not only Bergman's, he made "The Sacrifice" with Tarkovsky." "And he invited me for dinner in an artists' restaurant, of course, with an interpreter." "And he said: "You know, Elem," "Bergman and I saw "Agony" here, in Sweden." "Bergman said: 'lf the Nobel Prize were given for films," "I would have nominated it."'" "That was the first serious compliment I got." "The second was made by Kurosawa, when he was filming "Dersu Uzala"." "My film was already blacklisted, we were forbidden to show it." "But he wanted to see it, and we arranged it." "Only three persons were present, I wasn't there." "So Kurosawa watched "Agony" in an almost empty room." "When the lights went on, he rose and, demonstratively, applauded for five minutes." "Film Director ELEM KLIMOV" "So, the film 'Come and See' which you are going to watch now..." "I want to tell you how I came upon the title of the film." "When we finished the script co-authored by me and Ales Adamovich about whom I'm going to say a couple of warm words too..." "Anyway, the initial version of our script was titled 'Kill Hitler'." "After a span of 7 years, when we were allowed to pick that theme again," "they mentioned the word 'Hitler' should be cut out." "But when I say 'Kill Hitler'," "I mean not exactly that person, I'm just saying this in general." "But the title had to be altered, and I asked my brother to turn to The New Testament." "On our way to Goskino he leafed through the Revelation of Saint John the Divine, and found this refrain:" "...the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four beasts saying: 'Come and see.'" "And so, it is repeated several times." "Hence sprang the title, and it was the final one." "Howthe story of this film started?" "First of all I felt somehow very sore for having not made my film about the war." "I was born in Stalingrad." "As a boy, naturally, I saw all those bombings." "I remember us crossing the Volga and going behind the Urals, my Mom, my baby brother..." "We crossed the Volga in Stalingrad." "It was October 1942." "We were sitting in a shed on a ferry." "Stalingrad was situated on the right bank of the Volga." "It was a long city, at that time 60 kilometres long." "And after that it was the steppe and hills." "Nowadays, I guess, it is maybe 120 km long, or even more." "Gee, a city long like a tube." "At that time it was all ablaze." "The river was ablaze too, this patch of fire being 1,5 kilometres wide." "They had bombed a petroleum terminal, and it all went down into the water, and the water was on fire." "And we were being bombed:" "the water reached a boiling point because of all that." "Our mothers covered us with their bodies." "They put on top of us blankets, pillows and themselves too - on top of all this." "Of course I would peek out because I was curious." "It was a long way to the Urals." "My father stayed in Stalingrad to defend it." "Naturally I'm burdened with very stong recollections about that hell." "Because it was an excursion to hell." "And it lives in me forever." "So I thought it was a must with me to shoot a film about the war." "That was one reason." "Another reason was the world was on the brink of..." "People forget now about it." "But then we felt it with our skin that tomorrow World War III would break out." "The Cold War reached such a point, that a tiny slip could lead to a global catastrophe." "And the third reason - my film 'Agony." "I was dissatisfied with myself, I was dissatisfied with that film." "I had a wonderful starting material on my hands, a wonderful film crew, the great composer Schnittke, a nice director of photography, production designer, actors." "I fell short in expressing those extremely complex emotional states into which I had to investigate." "I was not ready for that." "And I developed inferiority complex." "I wanted to find material which would help me to rehabilitate myself in my own opinion." "Many like the film 'Agony', but I looked very critically upon it." "So, there were three reasons why I started looking for smth connected with the war and with some apprehension of an apocalyptical event in this world." "So, in a nutshell" "I came upon a novel by Adamovich whom I didn't know." "I knew Vassily Bykov, because Larissa Shepitko, my wife, made a wonderful film, a real masterpiece:" "Ascension' - a screen adaptation of Bykov's 'Sotnikov'." "So I didn't know Adamovich." "Then I read his 'Story of Khatyn'." "I read it and saw how vivid his narration was, with what talent he described the occupation of Byelorrussia and the genocide of its people." "That was quite a material." "We got acquainted with Adamovich, and I took to him." "Later I became aware why it happened so." "It was because he was a very honest person, very talented and clever too." "His whole family were partisans." "He was a teenager then and remembered everything." "So we set down to writing the script." "Not a screen adaptation." "We just followed the chemistry of the book." "So we started working." "And we made up a title:" "Kill Hitler." "We meant by this: kill a Hitler in yourself, because we all have our demons, in this or that measure..." "So we finished that script." "The film had been launched at Belarusfilm Studios." "We were scouting for locations, actors, and the one who would star in the film." "We were well aware that it would be a boy, not a grown-up." "It was a very difficult role, with extreme emotional states." "We were going to shoot it up only, but he was going to act." "So we found such a boy." "He was from Siberia, 15 years old." "We found the locations, and were going to start shooting." "We were patronized by P. Mosherov, the Byelorussian official." "But I was a suspect in the opinion of Goskino, maybe leading in their black list, after the 'Agony'." "So Goskino..." "Well, in a nutshell... they made such remarks considering the script which made the whole affair totally helpless." "So I refused to do it, I feigned I was ill and so on." "And again - a 7 years' pause." "I'm a real champion in these darned pauses." "I was promoting 'Agony' for 8 years." "I filmed it, and it was lying on the shelf for 10 years." "A lot of unstaged scripts, and again this pause... 7 years passed, we were in for the 40th Anniversary of V Day." "So, a hope was lurking." "They wanted another director to make that film." "ButAdamovich said:" "No, only him.'" "For seven years he had been fighting for me." "Sometimes I would even forget about the film, though I felt sore I hadn't made it." "In the end, we took up that work again." "And the title appeared:" "Come and See'." "We started filming in Byelorussia." "It took a lot of time." "Which means we were not that much pragmatic." "Why it happened so?" "Because we had taken for the main role Alyosha Kravchenko, a nice guy, he was 13 years old." "He was new in the cinema." "When you are a pro, you've kind of emotional defence." "But when you have no skills but only eagerness:" "when you listen to the director and feel thatyou're doing something real important..." "It could have had a very sad ending, he could have landed in a cuckoo asylum, because he experienced desparate states." "I don't even mean when they were drowning in a quagmire, or when real bullets were hissing over our heads." "And once a missile exploded in the air and an illuminating parachute was going down..." "And we had to cut all that into a sequence." "Plus that cow which nearly smashed all of us." "Later Alyosha confessed that most terrible for him were the scenes in the wooden barn into which the whole village had been driven." "In there he had his most terrible experience." "He told me later: 'I nearly lost my mind in there.'" "You know, the point is the Byelorussians' genes remember that holocaust." "Because every fourth person perished there." "628 villages burnt down together with their people." "Facists committed a great number of atrocities there." "And our psyche puts a barrier against it." "The Byelorussians, they all remember everything:" "someone was a child then, someone was told this story by his parents." "You needn't explain to Byelorussians how it all happened." "But defense mechanisms don't let them enact all this." "So Adamovich did the following thing, right on the movie set." "We filmed everything in Byelorussia." "I didn't leave the place, not for a single day." "Some of the crew would go to Moscow on their days off." "But I was afraid to move away, lest we lose that location." "So Adamovich started reading a book to villagers." "He would sit them on the ground and read the book: 'I come from the enflamed village'." "It's a stunning book which was compiled by three Byelorussian writers, their moving spirit was Ales Adamovich." "They took a car and travelled about Byelorussia." "They picked people who survived in those fires..." "Their narrations brought a gulp in your throat." "It was a painful reading..." "That book was like my touchstone." "It was always lying on my desk." "The sript was a script, but I opened that book very often because it kept me from the tiniest falsehood." "That subject was too sacred for us to be false." "And I would tell Ales:" "Should I be pretty earnest, which I bet I will " "no one will watch this film.'" "He said: 'AII right." "But we have to make this film all the same.'" "Well..." "Though, I think the film is rather reserved." "We could have showed such things there..." "But no one would have been able to watch it." "And our work would've been in vain." "So, in this or other way, we made that film." "And it was a big surprise for me:" "millions of people here and abroad watched it." "Many countries bought it, and they still watch this film." "Of course, awards are not the point here." "If people had stronger nerves, our audience would be more numerous." "I can understand women when they got scared." "There were cases in Russia and in Hungary when ambulances took away people." "But the life of this film continues on the screens of many countries." "But after that film I couldn't work any more." "For me it was so..." "I went through such an ordeal, as also my collegues - our film crew..." "Thank God, that boy Alyosha Kravchenko didn't go mad." "In the beginning of my career I had hypnologists in our crew," "Back then, when we were filming 'Agony'." "Wolf Messing was to appear in 'Agony'." "Alas, we were short of footage." "We could have had on the screen the great Wolf Messing..." "So, then I was well aware I would have to protect that poor boy lest he go mad." "With a hypnologist we developed a defence system, with all pertaining tests." "We knew howto probe the boy's subconsciousness, howto bring new knowledge home to him and how not to lose him, to take this burden off him." "So it was very stressful." "But thank God, the worst didn't happen." "Lyosha Kravchenko was a boy with strong nerves and very talented too." "I am sure he will make a nice actor." "Because at such a young age he proved to be so selfless, but he kept himself for himself" "and he kept his mother too." "Of course, she was very worried about him." "So, this is the end to this old story." "Then we screened that film and there were a lot of other dramatic stories." "Say, in America people can hardly watch this film." "Of course, there are those who do watch." "I think their problem is..." "They say: 'We have thrillers, but here it's something different." "It's real life.'" "So, this is how it is." "I don't regret I made that film." "It had a difficult pre-history and history." "But one has to make it a difference once in a while, to commit something worthy." "Herein lies the sense of creative work, when you can offer to people something real serious, real meaningful..." "Alexei Kravchenko, who played lead, comments" "I had a friend, a classmate." "He was eager to walk on in a film." "Once he offered that we both go to Mosfilm Studios." "They had announced on the radio they wanted fair-haired, blue-eyed boys." "So he asked me to go with him and stand by." "So I went with him and I didn't care at all to enter that world." "But as it is often the case, the eager ones fail, and those who are not eager..." "I remember a vestibule, a big crowd and some women walking about looking kids in the eyes." "When they first came up to me" "I felt they looked at me in some peculiar way." "Their attention seemed fixed on me." "They approached me - it was their first round..." "They threw a glance at me and..." "well, they went away." "I thought I would come up once again myself." "I made a circle and came up to them." "They looked at me and stepped away." "On the third round we swapped clothes with my friend." "Kind of cover-up, you know." "There was another woman, who beckoned me, took me to the window, looked me in the eyes and said: "He's got blue eyes, let's take him."." "They gave me a token numbered "13"." "They took my picture, and also I had to improvise." "For me it was such a weird thing to do that I got scared and "improvised"." "They said: "Imagine, your mom is bed-ridden." "She's dying." "What would you say?"" "Suddenly I broke into tears." "I..." "You can't feign such things." "It was a strong emotional impulse." "I started wailing:" "Mom... mommy..." "Someone said: "Stop!"" "I realized the best part of that crowd were crying." "Three days later I had a date with Elem Klimov." "I was amazed that his look like pierced through you." "He is still like this." "He looks straight through your whole self." "He said I had to watch some war footage - concentration camps, horrors of war." "I watched all this for about two hours." "After that I came to his office." "He said: "Do you care for a cup of tea with a piece of cake?"" "I said: "No." "Not now I can eat cakes."" "Because after whatyou saw you forgot about cakes." "He thought I was a kid and would come over it easily." "But I was not like this." "That was another step to screen tests." "I had no idea how to carry myself." "When that screen test went all right, the guys leaped for joy, they cried out: "hurray"." "A week later we left for the filming locations." "Klimov got acquainted with my mother." "He was afraid lest she come to the movie set:" "so out of 9 filming months she was with me only the last 4 months." "So at first she stayed home." "Klimov thought that should my mom come and see what's going on with me, she'd take me away there and then." "But my mom was not like this." "She encouraged me." "So Klimov started inviting her to the filming set." "But my mom won't come, she was a very modest person." "As to how we carried on, me and Klimov and the whole film crew," "I have the happiest recollections on this account." "They didn't treat me as a kid." "Of course they were well aware that I was a kid, but they treated me as a grown-up person." "I knew it was serious work going on and they expected from me to work in the sweat of my brow." "This self-denial of mine they appreciated very much and I was happy about that." "I was ready for any kind of exploits." "I remember Klimov once said:" "You're so rosy-cheeked.It's very complicated." "We analyzed scenes and he said:" "You need to lose weight." "I started an inch diet." "They taught me howto take only water for two days on end." "I felt that wasn't enough and started jogging." "It was summertime, we lived in a hotel." "I would jog away to such a long distance, the drivers would say:" ""Our boy has run away." ""It's an hour's way there in a car, but he goes on running."" "Then they'd joke: "Hey, take a bus back to the hotel."" "Everyone knew I lived in that key, in the key of the film." "I remember Elem Klimov standing near the open window and making a thumb-up sign, which meant I was doing great." "But it was quite the other way round when I rode a bicycle." "After all, I was a kid." "I would borrowthat bicycle from the locals." "He was afraid I'd fall down and get me scratches." "And he'd shake his fist at me." "Elem Germanovich never shouted at people." "He had some different buzz-bug." "He said: "You must do it thus."" "But howthus?" "He would step away without showing or explaining anything." "He'd just say: "Do it thus."" "And you had to rack your brains - how "thus"." "There was a funny moment, when Klimov said" "I needed to go to Moscow about some lenses." "But I thought he meant camera lenses." "And it was contact lenses!" "I realized that in the doctor's room when a woman-doctor was going to apply a lens to my eye." "That was something." "Elem Germanovich said the color of eyes may vary depending on emotional state." "It maybe a misted look, a darkish look, blackish look or even mirror-like look." "Mirror-like lenses I didn't need, thanks God." "cause when you're on an inch diet, your eyes give sparkles as it is." "Take, for example, a scene on the swamp." "It was an exhausted turf moor, and the cameraman would keep saying: "Lyosha, come on, come on."" "There was a thick upper layer of mire." "It was chompy and it was hard to cutyour way through it." "But the moor wasn't quaggy." "There were tree roots under the water: upon them I walked." "Should you fail to feel them, you'd go down breast-deep." "I wore slacks for divers, to protect me from parasites in the water." "Klimov said I take off the slacks to feel it real true to life." "So I wadded in just wearing my clothes." "He followed me." "The camera was on the floating platform." "Klimov had girded his slacks with a lace - a water-proof trick." "But the lace got loose and the water soaked in." "He had such a funny expression on his face." "A scene when they shoot a cow..." "They inserted a stake and started tying her up to it." "I asked: "Why are you doing this?"" "They said: "In case she gives a leap."" "I said" "Cows are not leapers."" "Especially ill cows...for it was ill." "There were two cows: an "actor" and an "understudy"." "The understudy reared herself when bullets were showered at her." "And it fell down right to where I was lying a moment ago." "There were concrete slabs opposite the armored troop carrier from where they were firing." "Behind the slabs were two cameramen and Klimov." "In no time at all I found myself in Klimov's lap." "There was kind of a trench over there:" "and towards this I had dashed." "I remember that unending firing, a cow rearing herself..." "And then I was clinging to Klimov:" "What next?" "said I." "He said: "Get back there"." "And I crawled back onto that cow and we finished that take." "Such were my bright recollections of childhood." "I was scared, but I understood very well:" "I couldn't be scared, not so much as to stop acting..." "I remember we were filming summer, and then winter came..." "In the end there is a shot when partisans walk along the wood and suddenly it was all snow around them." "The best part of the snowthey had melted down with a turbine." "Even snowdrops started to appear." "But in fact it was chilly winter." "I was firing at that portrait, and then they would take away that rifle from me." "And for a long time afterwards" "I was crying." "The rifle had recoiled, my palms had been numb from cold, and when they start warming up, it hurts, you know." "I hid myself and gave vent to my feelings, to take this burden off my heart." "When there was the first demonstration of that film, when I watched it for the first time," "I can't describe my feelings, cause I never thought that it was our work." "It was like some virtual reality:" "and some things I liked." "There grew a subconscious understanding in me that I wanted to become an actor." "I watched myself and many things I liked, but about some things I couldn't judge." "Only now I understand" "Klimov handled everything, he knew what he was after." "When we went out after that demonstration" "I saw a crowd making at me, everyone wanted to give me a hug." "It was scary, I thought they would knock me off my feet." "At the same time I was very much elated," "because it was a shared emotion..." "The footage of Krylova and Shneiderov in Sosino village." "It had been set on fire by the retreating Nazi." "In the basement of this burning house they had locked up three peasant families." "Women and children had died a torturous death:" "they had suffocated in the smoke." "Among the victims" " Vanya's mother, sister and brother." "Vanya himself escaped death:" "he fled to the woods." "Professor Rozhdestvensky's family..." "They had been tortured to death just because someone had fired a shot at the Germans near their house." "A 13-year-old Golovlev shot by a German officer for having refused to give away his pet - a dove..." "A wife of engineer Gordeev:" "she had been raped and shot down." "The sorrow of these women has no limits." "The fascists had mutilated and shot down their relatives - driver Dolbilov and his nephew Kryukov." "Thousands of Rostov residents - women, children, old people, had fallen victim of most vehement brutality." "Tears will dry out, sorrow will quiet down." "But always will be here our hatred, our sacred hatred towards murderers." "Rostov railway station." "The fascist brutes had committed here their atrocities too." "They had tortured and then killed the wounded Red Army warriors." "To put to torments the infirm!" ".." "Forget we shall not!" "Nor we shall forgive!" "We shall take vengeance on them!" "Our native land was liberated bit by bit, and Soviet people released from captivity." "March 14, 1944." "Red Army had intercepted an echelon: the Germans where taking people to a death camp in Azarichi, near Polesskoye swarm..." "Fascist leaders are going to face the righteous people's judgment." "From a dismal list of atrocities the judges will know about this death camp too, about a premeditated, detailed plan of destroying the Byelorussian people." "They will know about how our orphaned children were starved to death," "how Soviet people died torturous deaths, how Byelorussian people perished..." "Dear judges, be sure and ask the eyewitnesses:" "ask Galina Gavrilenko or Petr Gartashkin, or Lyudmila Pekarskaya from Zhlobino." "They will tell you what happened in this camp..." "Also ask these crippled and tortured prisoners." "Or better don's even ask them." "It would be enough just to look at them..." "And mind, the prisoners where 33 thousand many." "We're speaking here only about Polessky death camp..." "In occupied Russia there existed underground Bolsheviks' committees and partisan formations which controlled 63 per cent of the besieged territory." "By June 1943 partisan units were concentrated near the enemy's strategic communications." "The blows delivered on transport facilities were intensified by a 'railway track' warfare." "June 24, 1943." "The Byelorussian Bolsheviks' Central Committee voted for a crippling stroke on the enemy's communications." "Comrade Ponomarenko, Secretary of the Central Committee briefing delegates from a partisan centre who will soon return to the enemy's rear." "Triton blocks placed on rails were meant to disrupt the enemy's communications." "On June 28 runners were sent, loads of explosives with detailed instructions - to every 38 major partisan zones." "Radio stations sent reports to headquarters and were furnished." "with new instructions." "They were getting prepared in Minsk region too." "Vassily Kozlov, chief partisan of Minsk region." "He was made a general and a Hero of the Soviet Union." "They were getting prepared in Vitebsk region too..." "In headquarters, Colonel Bryukhanov coordinated partisan detachments." "They were getting prepared in Brest, Grodno, Belostok." "Kapusta, a commander of Belostok partisans." "They were getting prepared in Mogilev region too." "Their chief partisan comrade Soldatenkov had received the final instructions." "It was X-hour at last." "Minsk" " Orsha..." "Molodecno" " Polotsk..." "Brest" " Kovel..." "Pinsk" " Luninets..." "Minsk" " Belostok..." "The first blow was delivered on August 3, 1943." "On June 20th, on the eve of the summer offensive of the Army, another devastating blow was delivered which cut down the enemy's strategic traffic by 40 per cent." "During guerilla war the Germans lost 12 thousand steam engines and carriages," "34 armoured trains, 919 bridges were blown up, and 300 thousand odd rails." "That was howthe Soviet Byelorussia helped the Red Army." "This happened in Uschach district..." "Our partisans destroyed the Germans' garrison and took prisoners." "Among them there was a green youngster." "When they started investigating he told himself how he had slain a Russian family..." "There they are, lying in the snow." "Don't take pity on this monster!" "Hang him!" "Yours is a righteous judgment!" "In a ruthless war, partisan units gathered momentum under the leadership of Bolsheviks." "They had their own artillery, mortar units, gunners." "A plane from the Big Land." "Big Land was the territory not invaded by the Germans." "Many hopes were pinned on Big Land" "They were waiting eagerly for a U-2 to arrive." "It brought essential cargo - ammunition." "It was worth smth more than life." "It brought death to fascists." "Other dear presents were brought by planes from the Big Land." "A Hero of the Soviet Union Lobonok is holding a banner, a token of great honour paid to the unit of young Byelorussians by the Lenin Komsomol." "I swear: unless not a single German soldier is left on the face of my land, as long as my heart of a Lenin's follower is beating," "I will not let go of my rifle," "I will not spare my life in a deadly combat for the sake of all Soviet peoples." "This is my oath to the great Stalin." "That was their oath indeed." "Byelorussian woods reverberated with partisans' voices..." "Partisans' centres sprang up." "In Bigoml - in the rear of the enemy - the Soviet life was flowing." "Newspapers, proclamations and leaflets were being published." "A multi-thousand army of partisans' helpmates spreading all this among the Soviet people." "On the invaded territory there existed 2 central, 8 regional and 100 odd district newspapers." "Following a unified program of Commander in Chief, partisans were getting prepared for combats." "Hundreds of clandestine radio- stations in the rear of the enemy transmitted combat intelligence to headquarters and received instructions from a partisan centre." "Fortified partisan zones held down the mobility of the enemy behind front." "Partisan commanders Dubrovsky and Lobonok coordinate the actions of the neighboring units." "Here a fierce battle will be waged soon against the retreating enemy." "The high command ordered to take away the wounded and children." "Lest they hear the shooting or the moans of their fathers and mothers." "Lest they see again the slavery under fascists." "Go, children, higher, higher up, and on - to the east whence the Sun rises, where there is Stalin." "And mind, when you come back here with victory:" "should you find dead someone of your kith and kin, you should remember that they have died for your sake." "Fare well, dear children." "Go to the Big Land..." "The partisans gathered villagers from which they formed combat units, to protect people and lead them to the positions of the Read Army." "Moving towards the Red Army the partisans would stumble over the enemy, who with blazing fires marked their escape route." "And again Byelorussian villages were on fire:" "peaceful homes, collective farms' buildings." "People fled to woods, to partisans' camps." "They ran for their lives, they ran from the German slavery." "On February 24, 1944, on the outskirts of Dedovo village, the warriors of the 80th corps met peaceful villagers escorted by partisans:" "they've crossed the frontline." "Only in Bykov district 8 thousand Soviet people had been delivered from captivity." "The production designer Victor Petrov comments" "As for the visual aspect, from the very beginning the idea was to make it look, as close as possible," "like a documentary." "the picture had to be rendered achromatic:" "for the camera to produce an effect of being subjective, observant, moving in the midst of events." "That was the task for the whole film crew." "Speaking about the camera operator, his was a difficult work, for he was a real pioneer, bearing the brunt, and I mean it, carrying that heavy Steadycam hardware on his shoulders - shooting the film." "Notwithstanding technicalities and problems with hardware, and some down-to-earth things we had to overcome:" "we didn't mind all that, because we were young and daring, striving to make it a difference, no matter what." "Youth overshadowed problems." "And here is the result." "I knowfrom Klimov the best camera men of the world sang praise to Radionov after the film was demonstrated at several festivals." "Also God Himself was helpful to us:" "for mist not lifting, for special effects to go all right, for crowd scenes with local people and army guys to work at harmony, a system that would work without a fault." "Say, we had a barn decoration, which was emphatically the most hand-made thing." "This is speaking about my work." "All the rest was thanks to Elem." "Subconsciously he chose just the right movie set." "Everything, from casting to locations and machinery that appeared in the film - it's all Klimov's talent, including his work over the script." "We were only co-participants." "Everyone of us did everything he could to contribute into the cause, including his brother German." "And, at different stages of shooting," "Alexander Adamovich was here." "Also, when in Byelorussia, he brought eatables to us in his case:" "Byelorussian sausage, lard... and all that jazz..." "It's not my private opinion, but a proven fact:" "the whole film crew came through a lot of travail, every single person who made that film." "Starting with costume designers who took upon their shoulders" "that great volume of work:" "costumes for partisans, for 'chasteners', for the Russian Liberation army - lots of characters." "The costumes were off-coloured, lest colours stand out." "Everything brought to a severe harmony." "This is one aspect." "And such pyrotechnics!" "Everything genuine in episodes with chasteners." "When we tried s.e. explosions, the peat that rose up in a black flame from grit stone - that was not true to life." "So we tried genuine material." "The effect was quite different." "That produced an atmosphere when the actors, with their very marrow, felt that real horror, with explosions thundering, bullets swishing..." "Many things were done for the first time ever in cinema." "Those crowd scenes on the marsh, and our heroes Flor and Glasha enacted by Alexei Kravchenko and Olya Mironova:" "everything was real there:" "people in that quagmire, and the quagmire itself real too." "Amongst that squishing soil people behave differently." "Also the air - the air was different, with all those evaporations of turpentine, juniper smells, carbon dioxide hovering over the marsh..." "Byelorussian peasants, when picking cranberry on the marsh, called it 'dopey berry':" "after a day-Iong berry-picking you became like doped." "It was one feeling multiplied by another." "That film became a source of many tall tales." "But for me it was a real feast, when you dealt with a great master, with wonderful people which remained friends for many years thereafter." "This friendship even started before the shooting." "That film cemented our relations." "It was a U-turn in Lyosha Kravchenko's life:" "he started as a green boy:" "during that film he grew up, gained experience, became an actor." "That film was part of my life." "It was my destiny."