On April 19, 2015, «Igor Tolstunov's Producer Company» («PROFIT») began shooting the disaster film «Icebreaker». The film's director is Nikolay Khomeriki – («Heart's Boomerang», «A Tale About Darkness», «Nine Seven Seven»), the director of photography is Fyodor Lyass («School», «Dukhless», «The Thaw»). The lead roles are played by Pyotr Fyodorov, Sergei Puskepalis, Anna Mikhalkova, Olga Smirnova, Vitaly Khaev, Alexander Yatsenko, Alexander Pal, and others.
The film's plot is based on real events: in 1985, the icebreaker «Mikhail Somov» became trapped in heavy ice and found itself in a forced drift near the coast of Antarctica. For 133 days, the ship's crew fought for their lives and tried to escape from the icy captivity. The icebreaker «Vladivostok» was sent from Leningrad to assist «Somov» – the expedition was led by the highly experienced polar explorer Artur Chilingarov.
«Icebreaker» is, above all, a great documentary story telling about the glorious pages of our country's history and its people, real-life heroes, – says the film's director Nikolay Khomeriki. – This is a story that captivates with its deep humanistic component – in any circumstances, at any time, and in any part of the world, only human life is the highest value».
Filming of the picture began in Murmansk at one of the city's main landmarks – the world's first surface vessel with a nuclear engine «Lenin», on which chroma key backgrounds were installed for further work on computer graphics. Here the most spectacular scenes will be filmed.
In St. Petersburg, the icebreaker «Yermak» will be used for filming, and all interior scenes will be shot on sets.
«Obviously, on screen the story will be told differently than it happened in life – if only because in reality it lasted several months, and in the film it must fit into two hours. In addition, we
will change the names of the ships and the real names of the characters. Nevertheless, we want to very carefully recreate the details of the dangerous drift, show how the personal dramas of the heroes intertwine with a natural disaster, and how people demonstrate their best or worst qualities in a critical situation», – comments director Nikolay Khomeriki.
Preparation for filming lasted almost two years – the filmmakers carefully studied the history of the drift, developed set sketches, searched for non-standard special equipment and locations.
«Our company already has successful experience working in the disaster genre – in 2013 we released the film «Metro», based on a novel. This time we are taking on even greater responsibility, as we rely on real events. However, we will not concentrate on the rescue expedition – many documentary films have been made on this topic. We are making a feature film, so there will be no direct parallels. Our task is to show strong people confronting the natural elements. Funding will be provided with the support of the Cinema Fund, as well as by private companies», – says PROFIT's general producer Igor Tolstunov.
Filming of «ICEBREAKER» will continue until July 2015.