Last Knight (film)

The Last Knight, also known as The Last Warrior[5] (Russian: Последний богатырь, romanized: Poslyedniy bogatyr') is a 2017 Russian fantasy comedy film directed by Dmitriy Dyachenko.[1] The story develops around Baba Yaga and Koschei, both villains in traditional Russian fairy tales (as well as the fairy tales of other Slavic countries). The film was produced by American film companies The Walt Disney Company CIS with Russian film companies Yellow, Black and White[1] and Kinoslovo.[6] The film stars Viktor Khorinyak, Mila Sivatskaya, Elena Yakovleva, Ekaterina Vilkova, Konstantin Lavronenko and Yevgeny Dyatlov.

For the Transformers movie that came out the same year, see Transformers: The Last Knight.
The Last Knight
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDmitriy Dyachenko
Produced by
  • Marina Zhigalova-Ozkan
  • Eduard Iloyan
  • Grigoriy Stoyalov
  • Olga Maksimova
Screenplay by
  • Vitaliy Shlyappo
  • Dimitriy Yan
  • Pavel Danilov
  • Igor Tudvasev
Based onBaba Yaga and Koschei
Starring
Music byGeorge Kallis
CinematographySergei Trofimov
Edited by
  • Tim Pavelko
  • Anton Anisimov
  • Aleksandr Amirov
Production
company
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures CIS (Russia)[1]
WDSSPR
Release date
  • October 29, 2017 (2017-10-29) (Russia)
Running time
114 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguageRussian
English (dubbing)
Budget~$8 million
₽370 million[2]
Box office$30.5 million[3]
₽1.731 billion[4]

It was scheduled to have a wide release on October 26, 2017. As of November 26, 2017, the film became the highest-grossing local-language release of all time in Russia, surpassing Stalingrad with 1.68 billion rubles ($28.8 million)[1] and topping out at $30.5 million. In Russia, the film holds the 12th place biggest box-office audiences.[7] This was Disney Russia's second film produced specifically for the Russian market, with the first being The Book of Masters (2009).[1]

Plot

The film opens with sorceress Varvara, princess of the fantasy world Belogorye ("The White Mountain"), hunting down who she claims to be the last Bogatyr in the world. She petrifies him and throws him into the sea, where hundreds of other victims rest.

Ivan Naydenov is a young man living in modern Moscow, an orphan who managed to make his way in life by being a con artist: he masquerades as a "white mage", starring in rigged psychic contest shows and performing "rites" for clients. He starts having doubts about his selfish life choices, however, when asked to help a boy in a coma to wake up, which he obviously cannot do.

One day, during a faulty escape from a client's husband, he miraculously ends up in Belogorye. This parallel world is inhabited by the characters of Russian fairy tales and magic is commonplace. Leshy appears to have dragged Ivan there, claiming that Ivan is the lost son of Ilya Muromets himself, hidden on Earth years ago. Ivan is then immediately captured by Varvara's warriors and brought before prince Dobrynya Nikitich.

Dobrynya seems friendly at first, but Varvara soon throws Ivan into dungeon behind her husband's back. There, Ivan meets disembodied Koschei, who tells him that the only way to get back to Earth is by using the magical Sword Kladenets. He himself used it to achieve immortality, but Bogatyrs overthrew and imprisoned him thirty years prior. Since the forces of good have won, first most of the magical creatures were imprisoned or killed, and then Bogatyrs themselves. Provided Ivan is truly the son of Ilya, he can uncover the Sword and use it to bring the magical creatures back their power, and to return home.

Baba Yaga is soon captured and thrown into the same dungeon, but it proves to be a trick: she brought along Vasilisa the Wise in frog form, who easily releases the prisoners. Despite Ivan being more of nuisance than any help, the three decide to take him with themselves and find the Sword together. Escaping the dungeon, they also enlist Vodyanoy the Merman, attracted to Baba Yaga (in her younger form, obviously). Koschei tells Ivan that Vasilisa helps them because her entire village was turned into frogs by jealous Varvara after she caught the eye of Dobrynya. Despite bonding with Vasilisa over the loss of their parents, Ivan still decides that he wishes to get home and not to stay with her.

Varvara eventually captures the heroes, turns Vodyanoy into stone and forces Ivan to get the Sword for her, lest his friends are killed. Ivan does recover the Sword and overpowers his foes with it, but Koshei turns out to be in league with Varvara. Moreover, Dobrynya himself is revealed to be the mastermind of the whole scheme, planning to use the Sword to get the same kind of immortality as Koschei. Reasoning that he no longer needs his help, Dobrynya betrays Koschei, and Ivan uses the Sword to escape to Earth.

Back in Moscow, he quickly realizes that he cannot abandon his beloved Vasilisa in trouble, and decides to get back. Upon finding Leshy, he returns to Belogorye, sets free Zmey Gorynych and uses a modern handgun to fight his way to Dobrynya. However, the latter has already completed the ritual and is now immortal, about to execute Vasilisa and Baba Yaga. Using Gorynych as distraction and cover, Ivan challenges Dobrynya to a fair duel, hoping to give his companions time to destroy the magical stone and therefore undo the Immortals' invulnerability. During the fight, Dobrynya reveals that it was his envy of Ilya that led to betrayal of bogatyrs.

Koschei eventually gets his hands on the magical stone, and, touched by the selfless heroism of his companions, decides to shatter it, killing himself and Dobrynya. Varvara escapes Belogorye in horror, and her petrified victims come back to life, Ilya among them, reunited with his son now. Ivan decides to stay in Belogorye rather than return to the life of a fake "mage", marrying Vasilisa. The only thing he comes back into his world for is to use the real magic to help the comatose boy from the beginning of the film.

The film ends with Varvara on Earth, meeting her mother. It is revealed that the two planned to enthrall Dobrynya and gain dominion over Belogorye, but with that plan failed, will now have to make a different move.

Cast
Viktor Khorinyak the role of Ivan.
  • Viktor Khorinyak as Ivan Naydenov / Ivan the Fool, appears on the television screen in the role of magician and psychic Svetozar.[6]
    • Igor Yashanin as Ivan Naydenov in childhood
  • Mila Sivatskaya as Vasilisa the Wise, trying to destroy the spell that killed all her relatives and turned her into a frog, Vasilisa learned to fight in life.
  • Konstantin Lavronenko as Koschei
  • Elena Yakovleva as Baba Yaga, the wise woman and a witch, yourself at home is a cabin on chicken legs.
    • Svetlana Kolpakova as young Baba Yaga
  • Ekaterina Vilkova as Princess Varvara, the evil queen.
  • Yevgeny Dyatlov as Dobrynya Nikitich, a fearless bogatyr who turned to evil. He is married to Varvara.
  • Sergey Burunov as Vodyanoy, a merman, the lord of rivers, lakes and sea waters.
  • Aleksandr Semchev as a Monster that lives in the gorge.
  • Yuriy Tsurilo as Ilya Muromets
  • Wolfgang Cerny as Alyosha Popovich
  • Timofey Tribuntsev as magician Svetozar, a starets
  • Oleg Chevelyov as Varvara's guard
  • Vladimir Ipatov as boyar
  • Andrey Trushin as bogatyr, warrior
  • Elena Valyushkina as Galina, Ivan’s housekeeper, Varvara’s mother

English dubbing

The film was dubbed into English with the title The Last Warrior at the UK studio Pinewood Studio in 2017.

Production

Development

In May 2016, production began in Moscow and other locations. The premier was set for October 19, 2017, on the eve of school holidays with potential for being released in the IMAX format. The production companies applied to the Cinema Foundation for state support.[6] Filming took place in Moscow and near Sochi.[10] As of November 26, 2017, the film became the highest-grossing local-language release of all time in Russia, surpassing Stalingrad with 1.68 billion rubles ($28.8 million)[1]

Casting

The main character of the film, Ivan Naydenov, performed by Viktor Khorinyak, was conceived as a more serious hero, although there was also something left of the character of Kostya Anisimov from the TV series Kitchen, for example, the ability to quickly find a way out of a difficult situation.

Filming

Principal photography took place in Moscow and near Sochi,[11] and basically all the scenes were shot in real scenery, and not on a chroma key.[12] Most of the filming took place in the Republic of Abkhazia. Abkhazian production company Alexandra Basariya (Sandro) Abkhaz-Production LLC hospitably received the film crew and beloved Russian actors. The shooting took place in such cities and areas as: the road to Lake Ritsa, Auadhara Nature Reserve, Alpine Meadows, the village of Otap cave in Ochamchyrsky District, the town of Pitsunda, Gagra and Gudauta.

Post-production

According to the director, a watermark created by computer-generated imagery.

Release

The film is scheduled to be released in the Russian Federation on October 29, 2017 by Walt Disney Studios Sony Pictures Releasing (WDSSPR). The television premiere took place on January 1, 2018 on the Russia-1 TV channel.

Reception

Budget

The exact budget for the movie is unknown but it's estimated to be somewhere between $6[13] and $8 million.[14] In 2017 production company Yellow, Black and White (YBW) revealed that the overall production and promotion budget was 370 million Russian Rubles (~$8 million), equally distributed between Disney and YBW. The film is partially sponsored by Russian government through Cinema Fund, which gave 100 million Russian Rubles to YBW, although half of that sum was returned to state-owned Cinema Fund thanks to the movie's commercial success.[2]

Box office

The Last Knight in less than two weeks of rental broke the bar of 1 billion rubles and became the highest-grossing domestic film of 2017, according to the Unified Automated Information System (UAIS) (this record was broken after a short time by the sports drama Going Vertical (2017 film), which earned at the box office 3 billion rubles).[15][16] In total, The Last Knight collected more than 1.7 billion rubles at the box office, having recovered its budget in 11 days.[17]

The reason for success is found both in a positive word of mouth, and in the active support of distributors.[18][19]

Critical response

Critics' opinions about the film were divided, he received conflicting ratings - but mostly average, neutral. According to the "Criticism" aggregator, The Last Knight received an average rating of 67/100 in the press (based on 29 reviews).[20] Igromania magazine stated that the film is straightforward and that the reason why the villains of fairy tales, such as Koschey or Baba Yaga, went over to the good side, was not explained in the film. But he praised the film for good humor.[21] Magazine "Mir Fantastiki" gave the film six out of ten stars and stated that the film could not escape the cliche with the main character, which could be ridiculed in Shrek fifteen years ago, because of which the film suffers from a lack of originality, and also stated that the reason why the villains save the world of fairy tales was not disclosed in the film. However, the magazine also praised the film for humor.[22]

According to the results of a survey organized by the Kinopoisk website on the VKontakte social network, users called The Last Knight the best Russian film of 2017.[23]

Sequels

The Russian Disney office announced a sequel to the film in February 2018 with Yellow, Black and White co-production and Vitaliy Shlyappo leading the writers.[7] The film will be called The Last Knight: Root of Evil (ru) and will be released on December 24 in 2020.[24][25][26] A further sequel[27] is scheduled for 2021.

References
  1. Vladimir, Kozlov (November 27, 2017). "Russia Box Office: Disney Film Becomes Top Local-Language Release of All Time". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  2. Disney начала зарабатывать на российском кино. vedomosti.ru, Nonmember 9, 2017 (in Russian)
  3. The Last Warrior. The Box Office Mojo, 2017
  4. Box Office, Russian Cinema Fund (in English)
  5. Kozlov, Vladimir (April 20, 2016). "Disney Resumes Local-Language Movie Production in Russia After 7-Year Break". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  6. "Disney in the tale hit". Kommersant. 19 April 2016. p. 1. Retrieved July 30, 2018. Translation.
  7. Kozlov, Vladimir (February 20, 2018). "Disney to Make Sequel to 'Last Knight,' Russia's Top-Grossing Local-Language Film". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  8. https://www.reflectionstalentagency.co.uk/chris-kaye
  9. http://www.katlozano.com/2018/02/disney-feature-film-vo.html
  10. The Last Warrior, 2017
  11. "Съемки сказочного фильма "Последний богатырь" проходят в Москве" [The filming of the fairy tale film The Last Warrior takes place in Moscow]. Russia-K (in Russian). October 8, 2016.
  12. Serebryanskiy, Sergey (October 25, 2017). "Режиссёр «Последнего богатыря»: «Наша сказка достаточно суровая»" [Director of The Last Warrior: "Our tale is quite severe"]. Mir Fantastiki (in Russian).
  13. The original budget of the fairy tale "The Last Warrior" has already been exceeded - Kinodata, 01.10.2016 (in Russian)
  14. The Last Warrior - Kinomania, as of 10/27/2017 (in Russian)
  15. Kozhevnikov, Yevgeniy (November 27, 2018). "«Последний богатырь» стал самым кассовым российским фильмом" [The Last Knight became the highest grossing Russian film]. Igromania (in Russian).
  16. "«Последний богатырь» стал миллиардером" [The Last Knight became a billionaire]. Kino-Teatr.Ru (in Russian). November 5, 2017.
  17. Melnikova, Kseniya (January 29, 2020). "Золотой «Холоп»: как создатели главной комедии года заработали в прокате под 3 млрд рублей" [Golden Serf (2019 film): how the creators of the main comedy of the year earned at the box office under 3 billion rubles]. Forbes (Russia) (in Russian). Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  18. Kornatskiy, Nikolay (January 7, 2018). "Как последний стал первым: Причины кассового успеха «Последнего богатыря»" [How the latter became the first: Reasons for the box office success of The Last Knight]. KinoPoisk (in Russian).
  19. Surepin, Sergey (February 7, 2018). "Фильм «Последний богатырь» стал самым кассовым в России за 2017 год" [The film The Last Knight became the highest grossing in Russia in 2017]. Igromania (in Russian).
  20. "Рецензии на фильм Последний богатырь (2017), отзывы" [Reviews on the movie The Last Knight (2017), reviews]. Kritikanstvo.Ru (in Russian).
  21. Kozhevnikov, Yevgeniy (October 20, 2017). "Русский фольклор, добрые злодеи и юмор «Кухни»: чем удивит «Последний богатырь»?" [Russian folklore, good villains and the humor of Kitchen: what will surprise The Last Knight?]. Igromania (in Russian).
  22. Shepelyov, Dmitriy (October 17, 2017). "Последний богатырь: русская сказка от Disney" [The Last Knight: Russian fairy tale from Disney]. Mir Fantastiki (in Russian).
  23. "Пользователи «ВКонтакте» выбрали лучшие фильмы 2017-го вместе с КиноПоиском" [VKontakte users have chosen the best films of 2017 along with KinoPoisk]. news on KinoPoisk (in Russian). January 9, 2018.
  24. The film "Last Knight 2" will be released in December 2020
  25. Kozlovsky in Chernobyl and Jovovich among chess players: what films do Russian film companies work on?
  26. Named the release date of the film "Last Knight: The Root of Evil"
  27. "ГОТОВЬТЕСЬ К ТРЕТЬЕЙ ЧАСТИ "ПОСЛЕДНЕГО БОГАТЫРЯ" [Prepare for the third part of "The Last Knight"]". tlum.ru. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
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