The Phantom filming is now finished. How was the TV show made and what remained behind the scenes?

Complicated scenes and sci-fi elements, filming on the Dnipro bank and the last stories of a highrise, lyrical episodes and cruel shoot-outs, dangerous stunts and explosions – on the last days of June in Kyiv filming of The Phantom, a 16-episode detective drama (produced by FILM.UA), ended.

How was the TV film made and what remained behind the scenes?

There were 118 fascinating and packed film shifts, and now the premiere of a 16-episode detective story is planned for spring 2019.

The work on this project is like a dangerous adventure! There were fires and bloody fights on the set, along with murders and investigations; and criminals and loonies walked around freely (of course, those portrayed on the screen)… And you shouldn’t be thinking that The Phantom is restricted by action, detective and thriller genres! Actually, this is a film about truth and lies, and a search for the truth and own self.  

This is what director Sergiy Sentsov told us about his new work:  

“Generally speaking, The Phantom is a story telling us how easily a person can lose oneself in a contemporary word and how hard it is to regain your true self.  It is a story of self-deception, solitude, crime and punishment, redemption and, naturally, the most important things – love and friendship.”

 Searching for himself and the truth

The main character comes to his senses in a mental clinic. He doesn’t know his name or how he got here. His roommate in the ward Arthur helps him in the new surroundings. However, a crime happens in the clinic, and a person is dead as a result. Ivan the protagonist demonstrates unique analytical capabilities helping to find the criminal…

Ivan is discharged from the clinic and investigates crimes together with police captain Stas Krasivtsev. Each episode is a new case solved by our characters. But Ivan has his own interests at stake: he hopes to find out who put him into the asylum and who keeps going after him.  

The lead roles were played by well-known actors Yuriy Chursin, Pavlo Maykov and Tymofiy Trybuntsev.  

We asked how the project casting was going on. Director Sergiy Sentsov told us the following:  “We tried almost all actors beforehand, and they tried us and the material. We approved Pavlo Maykov and Tymofiy Trubuntsev almost immediately but took a long time to find an actor for the role of Ivan Satnov before we stopped on Yura Chursin.”

Actor Pavlo Maykov who plays Arthur, the main character’s ubiquitous friend, says the following about the film and his character:  

“This is a story about a man who doesn’t know himself. He is not aware how he will behave in an extreme situation and doesn’t know what he is capable of. Actually, this is a story about a person sorting oneself out… It seems to me we don’t know many things about ourselves, and it is better to remain ignorant about some of those things.”  

Besides, the series features other well-known actors: Yan Gakharmanov, Mykhaylo Tarabukin, Liza Tolubeyeva, Zoya Berber, Polina Sydikhina, Sergiy Yepishev, Oleksandr Galibin, Viktor Proskurin, Kostyantyn Murzenko, Artem Mikhalkov, Sergiy Serov, Anatoliy Goryachev, Dmytro Kulichkov, and others.

But at the same time the main character will have a very busy personal life! He is supported and helped by psychiatrist Olga Suvorova (Liza Tolubeyeva). Then a beautiful young woman Nastya (Zoya Berber) appears introducing herself as the character’s legal wife. However, at times Ivan recalls another lady, Diana (Polina Sydikhina) but he doesn’t know who she is to him… Already enough reasons to go crazy, right?  

Detective anthology in 16 episodes

So Ivan and his new friend, cop Stas Krasivtsev, investigate. But the stories told in 16 chapters-episodes are very different! There is a detective in closed space filmed in the style of thriller king Alfred Hitchcock when arson and murder take place in the mental clinic.

“Napoleon and Bear episodes, on the contrary, are presented predominantly in a comedy style. In the first episode our characters investigate the death of a French grenadier in Emperor Bonaparte’s military camp where programmers from a big company ‘play soldiers.’ In the second one, the characters have to solve a mysterious murder of a bear in the zoo,” says Sentsov, director.

Some scenes were filmed in the first, the biggest FILM.UA pavilion: for example, the episodes of explosion at the pharmaceutical factory, the fire-setting to oxygen capsule in the mental clinic, and several fight and fire scenes.

By the way, it is here that the scenes picturing Lyokha’s punishment were filmed: they pour liquid concrete on this character. Frankly speaking, it was a bit scary to watch that…

But the whole film crew enjoyed explosions prepared by pyrotechnicians and stunt coordinator Pavlo Avilov.  

A set for a spa room at the mental clinic where one of the doctors dies was constructed. According to the plot, the doctor lies down into the oxygen capsule but someone’s hand throws a lighter in there. An explosion ensues, and the doctor is killed as a result…

Before filming the explosion itself the light in the pavilion was switched off. The whole group was asked to move as far away as possible (everybody present took out their phones at the same time to document these unforgettable moments).  

The explosion fired off, the capsule lit up and started burning. Then the firemen arrived and extinguished everything in several minutes.  

No filming can pass without funny incidents. In one episode the car almost hit the actors! The group was filming a moment when the killer was going to shoot the girl whose car fell into the quarry. However, according to the plot the criminal is stopped by Ivan Satnov and Stas Krasivtsev. They arrive in a car which they leave on the kerb and dart out to save the girl. But during the filming Tymofiy Trybuntsev (playing Stas) forgot to put the car on the handbrake and it started slowly rolling into the quarry. The whole film crew froze, and Trybuntsev with Chursin kept calmly playing out their scene. They were saved by a fence which prevented the car from hitting the actors.  

Authors! Authors!

And now about the script. Two authors worked on this story, namely Andriy Zabiyaka and Anton Lirnyk. By the way, they became authors of well-known projects Major and Magic, Married After Everyone, and Swallow’s Nest.  

The authors told us that The Phantom characters appeared under the influence of classic detectives, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. It’s just that in our series not Holmes but Watson plays the first fiddle… And Arthur, Satnov’s friend, does not have this name by accident – the authors named him in honor of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes’s literary father.

But we’ll not divulge all the details of the script!

Let us look at new stills from the filming period and wait until the premiere of 16-episode detective drama with thriller elements The Phantom.  

Director: Sergiy Sentsov

Cameramen: Oleksiy Strelov and Dmytro Shlykov  

Screenwriters: Andriy Zabiyaka and Anton Lirnyk  

Producer: Viktor Mirsky

Cast: Yuriy Chursin, Pavlo Maykov, Tymofiy Trybuntsev, Yelyzaveta Tolubeyeva, Polina Sydikhina, Mykhaylo Kremer, Yan Gakharmanov, Mykhaylo Tarabukin, Zoya Berber, and others.