Czech studio Barrandov has taken a 20% share in Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov's Sibirsky ciryulnik (The Barber of Siberia), shooting from yesterday at Moscow's Mosfilm.
Providing services for and co-producing Emir Kusturica's Underground and Steve Barron's Pinocchio, Barrandov production chief Anna Vaschova confirmed that the turn-of-the-century love story, starring Smilla lead Julia Ormond, Oleg Menchikov and Richard Harris, will be the studio's major international co-production in 1997.
“But another two - smaller - foreign contracts are at their final stages,” added Vaschova, whose department last year facilitated such films as Roger L Simon's Prague Duet, Michael Cohn's Snow White in the Black Forest, Gleb Panfilov's Posledni Romanovi (The Last Romanovs) and the Juraj Herz TV series, Maigret.
General manager Vaclav Mahoul admitted that the production problems in Prague of Brian de Palma's Mission: Impossible had damaged business, “although unfairly, since we simply let the offices at Barrandov, and had nothing to do with the actual scene. But we are back on track.”
A US$22 million feature, Sibirsky ciryulnik depicts the love story of an American woman and a Russian soldier. Eurimages contributed US$800,000 to the project which was mounted by France's Camera One, Russia's Tri-te Studio, Italy's Life International and Barrandov's production company, Barrandov Biografia.
Starting on the script 12 years ago, Mikhalkov lensed several sequences last autumn at Nizhny Novgorod. After Moscow, all studio and location photography is scheduled for Barrandov and the Czech Republic.
At the EFM, head of international sales Lenka Mrazova and sales assistant Marketa Dvorakova are touting Barrandov's latest production, Tomas Vorel's Kamenny most (Stone Bridge). With Vaclav Havel making a guest appearance as the Czech president, it depicts a film director working out his relationships with parents, wife and an uncanny demon.
Jørn Rossing Jensen
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