Andrey KAVUN

20 January 2010, 12:47

The new domestic-made film called Kandahar, based on a true story, on February 4 comes out in Russia. The year 1995, Afghanistan. The Kazan-based crew of a Russian cargo plane, owned by the Aerostan company, is forced to land at an airfield in Kandahar. The seven Russian pilots are taken prisoner by the Taliban. The Kazanians spend over one year in captivity but miraculously manage to hijack an airplane and come back home.

The film’s director Andrey Kavun, whose previous works include the box office hit Hunting Piranha, in anticipation of the premiere gave an interview to Tatar-inform’s Maxim Zaretsky.

Q: The story with the Il-76 seizure happened a long time ago and has equally long been asking to be made into a screen version. Why is it only now it has been transferred onto film?

A: You know, it is hard to say why only now. It came to me suddenly once, at some point, and I realised a very good film could be made of it. I later found that other people had tried to tackle it before me but it had somehow not worked out.

Q: To what extent was the story adjusted for the audience? That is to say, which parts were a bit embellished or altered?

A: This is not a documentary. I did not try to take to film word for word what the captain said; to do that, I should have first gone to Kandahar. I was greatly tempted to make the story documentary, but I realised I would have to talk to all the seven pilots for that. And it could have turned into a journalist investigation. The human story itself was important for me. I based it on the fact itself and all the events but I reshuffled all the characters so much that no one except the captain looks like the peole they are based on. Completely new characters were created.

Q: Who was the project's chief consultant?

A: We had many consultants. Some were responsible for the aircraft, and a man who had worked for very long in Afghanistan as a special correspondent and Ahmad Shah Massoud’s personal journalist, that is, he had spent a lot of time in Afghanistan and known everything from the inside, was in charge of the daily routine in Afghanistan.

Q: Did you rely on the global practice of making this type of biopics? Were you inspired by some film? Not necessarily one made in Hollywood, a Russian one for instance?

A: (laughing) You see, if our filmmaking were better developed, you would have asked it vice versa, “not necessarily a Russian one, but a Hollywood one”. You know, no, I was not. For me, the story was precious in itself, I followed no example. We did watch some films. For shooting techniques, for atmosphere, but they were so many I would not be able to single out one.

Q: Where did the shooting take place?
A: On the border with Sahara, in Morocco, in Istanbul and in Moscow.

Q: What are your predictions for the film’s box office?
A: I have no predictions for the film’s box office. First, I am not  involved in it professionally. Second, I unluckily know nothing at all about what is happening with our distribution system. The audience has gone mad if they go and watch enthusiastically the insane Best Ever Films, released in bunches, one after another, whereas films like The Island and The Tsar founder in terms of box office.