My Best Friend, General Vasili, Son of Joseph Stalin (1991 film)

Infobox Film
name = My Best Friend, General Vasili, the Son of Joseph Stalin
original_name = Moy luchshiy drug, general Vasiliy, syn Iosifa
director = Viktor Sadovsky
writer = Valentin Ezhov
starring = Boris Schcherbakov
Vladimir Steklov
Andrei Boltnev
Irina Malysheva
Andrei Tolubeyev
Petr Shelokhonov
Igor Yefimov
Georgi Shtil
Ernst Romanov
Valentina Kovel
music = Vladlen Chistyakov
cinematography = Vadim Grammatikov
editing = G. Baranova
studio = Lenfilm
Leninterfilm
Kraun
distributor = -Russia-
Lenfilm
-non-Russia
Leninterfilm / Kraun
released = 1991
runtime = 102 min.
country = flagicon|Russia Russia
flagicon|BEL Belgium
language = English
Russian
imdb_id = 168076

My Best Friend, General Vasili, the Son of Joseph Stalin ( _ru. Мой лучший друг генерал Василий, сын Иосифа ) is a 1991 film, directed by Viktor Sadovsky and starring Boris Schcherbakov and Vladimir Steklov.

Plot summary

Biopic film, based on a true story of friendship between Vasili Stalin, the son of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and the famous Russian sports star Vsevolod Bobrov.

Vasili Stalin was Lieut. General of the Red Army in charge of the Army and Airforce sports teams. He befriended the talented athlete Bagrov (Bobrov) and made him a sports star in the Soviet Union. After each game played by his "toy-star" Bobrov, General Vasili Stalin would throw massive and wild drinking parties, with women dancing on their dining table among bottles of vodka. But after the death of his dictator father, general Vasili Stalin was arrested by the new Soviet leadership, and was charged with "anti-Soviet" conspiracy, because of his opinions expressed in conversations with foreign diplomats.

Cast

*Boris Schcherbakov - as Vsevolod Bagrov (Vsevolod Bobrov)
*Vladimir Steklov - as Vasili Stalin
*Andrei Boltnev
*Irina Malysheva - as Ninel
*Andrei Tolubeyev
*Igor Gorbachyov
*Petr Shelokhonov - as Colonel Savinykh
*Valentina Kovel
*Igor Yefimov
*Georgi Shtil
*Yan Yanakiev
*Ernst Romanov
*Andrei Ponomaryov
*I. Myachina
*Anatoli Rudakov
*Aleksandr Berda
*Sergei Losev
*Yevgeni Barkov
*Yuri Dedovich
*Yevgeni Dergachyov
*Mikhail Devyatkin
*Yefim Yoffe
*Nikolai Makarov
*Viktoriya Sadovskaya
*Viktor Solovyov
*A. Strepetov
*Aleksei Vanin
*Ye. Yerofeyev
*O. Yudin
*Yu. Zabludovsky

Crew

*Director: Viktor Sadovsky
*Writers: Valentin Ezhov, Natalya Gotovtseva, Pavel Kortobaj, Viktor Sadovsky
*Cinematographer: Vadim Grammatikov
*Composer: Vladlen Chistyakov
*Editor: G. Baranova
*Production designer: Vladimir Svetozarov

Production

*Production companies: Lenfilm, Leninterfilm, Kraun (Belgium)
*Production dates: 1990 - 1991
*Filming locations: St. Petersburg, Russia, Moscow, Russia.
*Additional production assistance was received from the Red Army and the Central Archives of the USSR.
*Original period military uniforms of the Red Army were used in the film production.
*Vintage Soviet cars of the 1940s and 1950s period were used in the film production.

Release

*Theatrical release in Russia was in 1991
*Theatrical release outside of Russia was in 1992
*Video release was in 1993

Reception

*Estimated theatrical viewership in the former Soviet Union was about 10 million.
*International theatrical viewership - no data.

Facts of film production

*The treatment for the film script was initially written by Valentin Ezhov in the 1980s, but he was waiting for the right time and circumstances together with director Viktor Sadovsky. The final script was written by the group of four authors.
*Filmmakers changed the name of the main character to Bagrov, in order to avoid direct mentioning of the reputable Russian star Vsevolod Bobrov, whose popularity was high among sport fans in Russia, as well as internationally.
*At the time of filming the former Soviet censorship was practically obsolete because of "perestroyka" and "glasnost" under Mikhail Gorbachev.
*Absence of the Soviet censorship allowed to portray Stalin's son, Vasili Stalin, giving some artistic freedom to filmmakers, and also allowing Russian actresses to be involved in nudity and sex scenes, which were less than usual in the Soviet cinema before 1991.

Facts of history

*Vasili Stalin was the youngest son of Joseph Stalin.
*In real life Vasili Iosifovich Stalin was imprisoned under a fictitious name "Vasili Vasilyev" in the Vladimir central prison. He was temporarily released under Nikita Khrushchev and returned to Moscow, but then was arrested again and exiled to the city of Kazan, where he died aged 42, in 1962.
*Vsevolod Bobrov excelled in both football (soccer) and ice hockey, and led the Soviet ice hockey team to victory in the 1956 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and earning himself an Olympic Gold Medal.

External links

*My Best Friend, General Vasili, the Son of Joseph Stalin (in Russian: Мой лучший друг - генерал Василий, сын Иосифа) на IMDb : [http://imdb.com/title/tt0168076/]
*Мой лучший друг генерал Василий, сын Иосифа на Kinoexpert.ru: [http://www.kinoexpert.ru/index.asp?comm=4&num=4190] (Russian)
*Мой лучший друг генерал Василий, сын Иосифа на Kinopoisk.ru: [http://www.kinopoisk.ru/level/1/film/46674/] (Russian)