“The birth of an empire”: Bryansk reenactors starred in an epic historical film

Currently, on the big screens of the country is rapidly gaining the number of views of the movie “The birth of an empire”.

The film rental in Bryansk, as well as throughout Russia and the CIS, started on October 29. According to specialized resources, cash collections in our country and the nearest abroad for less than two weeks exceeded 600 million rubles. Views of the film amounted to more than 1 million 200 thousand.

The director of the picture Andrei Kravchuk picked up a star team of actors. Among them are Alexander Gorbatov, Julia Peresild, Milos Bikovich, Alexei Guskov, Sergey Garmash and others. This, as well as an interesting plot along with battle scenes ensured the success of the picture.

Played the fact that the news showed the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who after watching the “Birth of an Empire” offered to show free of charge to schoolchildren, students and pensioners films that objectively tell about the history of Russia:

It would be possible in such cases, not only in this case, but in general in such cases, films that so objectively, fully reflect the history of Russia, individual epochs of the development of the Russian state, to give some categories of citizens the opportunity to watch for free.

The plot of the film tells about the rather well-known for specialists and lovers of the history of time - the beginning of the reign of Peter the Great, who embarked on the difficult path of global reforms, led the country through the 21-year Northern War. This long war and the victory over Sweden with one of the strongest armies, which had just conquered a number of European countries, made our country one of the world powers. The victory allowed Russia to receive the long-awaited access to the sea and the status of an empire, and Peter brought the honorary title of Great.

Residents of Bryansk are well aware that Peter I visited our region, which was a strategic region in its multifaceted activities. In 1696, Bryansk, along with Voronezh, became the "cradle of the Russian fleet" - here, by order of the tsar, the Admiralty was founded and a shipyard was laid on which the fleet was built for war with the Turks.

Peter visited Bryansk and later, when he was heading for the Battle of Poltava, which became the crown of the land war with Sweden. The tsar stopped at the Svensky Monastery, where the “House of the Great Transformer of Russia” was restored relatively recently by the efforts of the monastery brethren. According to the plans of the abbot, a museum exposition dedicated to Peter’s visit should be placed here.

The ties of the Bryansk region with the times of the Petrovsky transformations were strengthened even more after the creation of the film “The Birth of an Empire”. The fact is that the filming was attended by reenactors from the military-historical club “Bryansk Volunteer”, operating on the basis of the Bryansk branch of the Social Fund of Russia.

This is not the first large-scale project in which we are invited to participate, - says the head of the club Vladimir Kozhurin, - our main specialization is the Great Patriotic War. The club has been operating for several years. The Bryansk Volunteer has a core of 6-7 people, the rest is a variable composition, which is also interested in our history, the possibility of participating in battles, in conditions close to combat – with shooting, explosions of pyrotechnics, real tanks or operating models of military equipment.

During participation in various events, we met with film directors and their employees. We got invited to shoot. “The Birth of an Empire” was not just another, but also an important project. The fighters of the club through themselves missed the state of involvement not only in the shooting, but also partly in the great events through which our country passed three hundred years ago.

Of course, it is interesting to get acquainted with famous actors, but we are well aware that extras in the movies do not make us first-class. On the contrary, it is not always good to get close to the camera operator during battle shooting. It is good if you come out in a particular episode of the battle the winner. And if during the shooting you "die" and your death will be filmed close-up, then the next day you fly from the director "funeral" - they say, you are all dead, your face is illuminated and you no longer participate in the shooting. Or they put you in the farthest corner. Therefore, in cinema, as in life, it is better to defeat the enemy and stay alive, Vladimir Vladimirovich shares the secrets of filmmaking.

We try to adapt to such global projects. We know in advance the time of shooting, we plan our holidays for them. Usually ordinary reconstruction activities take place in one or two days. Therefore, we manage to cope over the weekend Saturday and Sunday. We often go to Moscow, to the Moscow region, where holding festivals of historical reconstructions has already become a good trend. This is already understood in the neighboring Kaluga and Orel regions. Local events have long been interregional. Our movement is very conducive to the development of tourism, recognition and attractiveness of the region, attracting tourists.

We are also delighted to be invited by Patriot Park. Participants of reconstructions are given commemorative medals and official thanks. We are happy to respond to requests to create the necessary entourage at patriotic events and at home. So, last year Bryansky Volunteer spoke at the opening of a unique monument to Belarusian military journalists in the Bryansk forest - the editorial office of the newspaper For Savetskaya Belarus. We were invited to this event by the initiator of the creation of the memorial, Grigory Kozhurin, editor-in-chief of the Moscow Komsomolets in Bryansk, for which we are very grateful.

About the film “Creation of Empire” heard only positive reviews. Probably, taking into account the call of Vladimir Putin to make the visit free, distributors set the entrance price below the lower.

- I've seen the movie myself. I like it. Knowing where my friends and I filmed, you can see and learn our “feats”. But in the heat of the movie fight, in which “horses, people mixed”, of course, it becomes difficult to see an individual soldier. And following the example of my namesake, I also recommend going to the film, the Bryansk reenactor urges fellow countrymen.