The filming of the fourth season of The Sniffer crime series has been completed in Kyiv. The creators of the project have told about the filming process and the director Artem Litvinenko has explained what the series has in common with the comic strip and what the Sniffer-City really is...
Fashionable hotels and desolated buildings, green lawns and gloomy alleys, dump sewers and elegant halls – this is the way we see Sniffer-City, the movie city, where the Sniffer, his close ones and other residents live...
Back in previous seasons, the authors of the project promised to reveal the past of the main character. The new season will really tell us more about the Sniffer himself... At that, he will plunge into “blank spots” of his biography.
However, his name will not be revealed: it seems the authors of the series decided to keep backstory for the next seasons.
So what will happen to the main character and his close ones? What is new in the fourth season? We addressed these questions to the director and the scriptwriter, Artem Litvinenko:
“By the fourth season, our characters were revealed even more: and each of them needed more attention, more stories... I would even say that some competition among the main characters emerged. The audience already knows them well, so their personal stories and relationships have come to the fore thus taking more screen time than actually investigations.”
We would like to add that Viktor Lebedev, Irina, and Yulia will experience some unexpected turns in their lives, Tanya Voskresenskaya will face some dramatic changes in her fate... And the Sniffer will also reveal forgotten chapters of his life. So we are in for the detective story in the detective story.
About actors and their characters
But the main thing is that the fans will see their favorite actors again! The main parts will still be played by Kirill Kyaro, Ivan Oganesyan, Agne Grudite, Nina Gogaeva, Maria Anikanova.
By the way, the actor Kirill Kyaro has also faced some cool and pleasant changes in his life – he has become a father for the first time!
It may appear to many that Kirill in real life is just like his protagonist: reserved, laconic, misanthropic. But in fact, Kirill is the polar opposite of his character! The actor told about his character in an easy manner, but with much greater pleasure he talked about his little daughter Mira!
“Last winter our daughter was born, and she is just an angel. We called her Mirra – and we guessed with the name: our daughter is very calm and peaceful and sings a lot. Currently, mostly Yulia spends time with our daughter. I try very hard to stay at home with my daughter as much as possible. And even if I get a couple of days off during filming, I go home. When my daughter grows up a bit, they will fly to my filmings with my wife,” Kirill said.
Ivan Oganesyan' character – Victor – will again fall into trouble in the fourth season. He will get in the midst of dangerous investigations, will be forced to hide and squat, so he will have some trying times. However, the actor told nothing about the Lebedev's adventures and advised to watch the new season, which will be launched on screens soon.
...One of the filming days, we found ourselves... at a wedding ceremony. Filming was conducted in Mezhigorye. White flowers, improvised altar and arches, elegant guests, a string musical band, beautiful bride and groom – everything was very splendid. Not to tell any spoilers, we will just add that this ceremony happened to one of the main characters. Are you intrigued? That's it – the fourth season is on its the way!
By the way, this season the audience will see many of their favorite actors. For example, Tatyana Tsymbal, the legend of Ukrainian cinema and television, starred in one episode. It will be about a private boarding house where a chain of strange deaths occurs. And Tsymbal's character will be the heart of the investigation.
How Sniffer-City was created
The project has grown significantly throughout the four seasons, it has its own world! It is a special style of the project, and locations, and characters, and themes. But the author of the project, Artem Litvinenko, deems the Sniffer to be a comic strip.
“We have created our world in The Sniffler – a city with no name. It's not Kyiv, not Minsk, not Astana, and not Moscow – we have our own metropolitan city like Gotham, but not that gloomy. It has its own service – SBI, a special bureau of investigations having no relation to any country. In fact, The Sniffer is a comic strip, and the Sniffer-City is the city the events take place at.”
And given that the protagonists of the comics have superpowers, everything fits together. After all, the Sniffer has a unique gift giving no chance to any crime remain unsolved...
How has this mythical Sniffer-City been created? We will tell you several appealing stories... And although you have seen many locations in previous seasons, in the fourth one you will see them in a brand new way. Familiar places are shown in such a way that you can hardly recognize them!
“We have selected and modified locations so that no one really knows where the episode is filmed. Therefore, we have had to add something to buildings, ideas, filming. This is both my interest and the trick of the series,” Artem intrigues.
There are also new places – for example, Tallinn City Hall. In the Soviet Union times, it was a pompous building, built for the Olympics, now it is an abandoned complex.
Another interesting location is Kyiv Circus. According to the plot, the Sniffer and Victor conduct another investigation there, and they will have to get behind the stage, spectacular arenas, and velvet curtains.
Dressing room secrets
And now we go to the designers to find out how Sniffer-City acquired it objects and textures, how it was made up...
Costume designer Elena Rukavishnikova told that the main character will remain true to himself and will further wear clothes of dark colors.
“He loves his always perfectly-pressed and elegant suits. Same as before, the Sniffer will appear wearing gloves and with his own unique hard case.”
It will be Victor Lebedev to surprise the audience! He will take off his traditional gray suit and try on several odd images, appearing with a mustache and in glasses, as well as in old worn clothes. But what exactly will happen to him? We will find out soon!
Make-up artist Lyudmila Semashko, together with her colleague Elena, has been working on the project from the very first season. And when we asked her about the most unusual feature in this season, she was a bit confused.
In fact and literally, artists cope with unexpected and interesting tasks every shift.
And for this season, a silicone doll was made – an exact copy of one characters. According to the plot, this person is sophisticatedly murdered by being made into a sculpture.
“Our task was to make this doll as real as possible. It was interesting, and I believe we did it,” she said.
(Note in parentheses: indeed, they did: when you stand next to this “person-like doll”, it gives you really goose bumps, you feel weird...)
And it goes without saying, Sniffer-City will still be presented in its usual cold color scheme being kept throughout all seasons.
We have disclosed you only some minor details of the project. We would like to add only that Sniffer-City keeps many secrets and we will reveal them step by step.
It remains just to wait for the launch of the fourth season... Finally, we would like to present the film crew that worked on the project:
Director: Artem Litvinenko
Producer: Viktor Mirsky
Executive Producer: Maksim Asadchiy
Director of photography: Yevgeny Gubrenko
Scriptwriter: Artem Litvinenko, Andrey Babik
Cast: Kirill Kyaro, Ivan Oganesyan, Agne Grudite, Nikolai Chindyajkin, Maria Anikanova, Nina Gogaeva and others.
