“Just by looking at numbers it becomes obvious that we haven’t filmed anything as big in Ukraine yet,”
says Egor Olesov, The Stronghold producer.
A new poster of Ukrainian adventure fantasy The Stronghold has been officially released.
The film is created with the support of Ukrainian State Film Agency and will be released in cinemas on October 12. Meanwhile the filmmakers have published 12 facts about the first Ukrainian fantasy film. “A film about Ukrainian superheroes simply has to be supersized,” says Yuriy Kovalyov, director.
12 Facts About The Stronghold Fantasy Film
100 tons of soil, 1000 meters of rope and 200 square meters of felt were used to build a Cuman camp.
The armor for Dobrynya (Alexander Komarov) consisted of 500 plates and weighed 30 kilos.
450 meters of cloth were spent for the costume of Shaman (Yerbolat Toguzakov).
The area of green cloth to create virtual world amounted to almost 1 square kilometer.
160 costumes were specially made for the actors. 150 more were selected from private collections.
2 kilos of hair were used for the actors’ beards. Making one beard took between two and three days; in total, 40 beards and 30 wigs were made.
Only the construction of The Stronghold fortress and its set lasted for almost six months.
Oleg Voloschenko (playing Ilya) lost 10 kilos during filming.
The film group covered about 5,000 kilometers during filming.
A well-known Ukrainian musician, Fagot from TNMK band, also played a role in the film. On the screen he’ll be shown as the best patrol in the frontier town of Rimov.
Film locations were the following: Carpathian mountains – Dovbush rocks, marshes near Boyarka (Kyiv region), Botanic Garden and Bald Mountain in Kyiv, Korostyshiv quarry, TeterivCossack camp, a lake near Kagarlyk, a pool in the gym of Ukrainian Transport University, Pyrogovo folklore museum, a lake near Bolshaya Bugayovka village, a specially built fortress in pavilion No. 1 of FILM.UA Group.
To transport fifty horses to the set, eight special vehicles with boxes were used. The horses were transported in advance before the shift so that they could get used to the location.
The Stronghold
Genre: fantasy, adventure
Director: Yuriy Kovalyov
Producers: Egor Olesov, Yuriy Prilipko
Co-producers: NOVYI TV channel
Screenwriters: Alexander Dermansky, Yaroslav Voytseshek, Yuriy Kovalyov
Based on the book The Stronghold by Vladimir Rutkovsky
Lead roles played by:
Daniil Kamensky - Viktor
Eva Koshevaya - Alyonka
Roman Lutsky - Oleshko
Oleg Voloschenko - Ilya
Alexander Komarov - Dobrynya
Georgy Derevyansky – grandfather Ovsey
Slava Krasovskaya - Rosanka
Natalya Sumskaya - Milanka
Yerzhan Nurymbet - Andak
Yerbolat Torguzakov - Shaman
Ivan Denisenko - Tugarin
Date of Ukrainian release: October 12, 2017
Follow the news on official film pages:
