James Bond has become Belarusian partisan singing Kupalinka

A Hollywood film director Edward Zwick has finished shooting of a film about World War II. A Hollywood actor Daniel Craig was starred in the lead role of a commander of the Belarusian partisan party. Daniel Craig was James Bond in Casino Royale film.

Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall) was inspired by a screenplay by Clay Frohman based on a nonfiction book of the same name by author Nechama Tec. The film is based on the true story of the Bielski partisans. The brothers organized a Jewish partisan party, disobeying the Nazi who had occupied Belarus. Daniel Craig is starring in the role of Tuvia Bielski, one of the four brothers. Another celebrity, Liev Schreiber (The Omen), performed as another brother, “Telenedelya” writes.

The film is to be released in autumn -2008. The budget of the film is $50 million.

Not “Black crow”, but “Kupalinka”!

Impenetrable woods of Belarus were filmed in 30 kilometers from Vilnius. The film crew arrived to Lithuania hoping for a snowy winter, but there was hopeless thawing weather. So partisans’ deeds were shot against the background of artificial snow and silicone icicles.

No only weather have made to make modifications. For instance, Belarusian actors debated with Ed Zwick over the song partisans could sing around the fire. According to the idea of the director, they were signing a Russian national song “A Black Crow”, while according to the actors, they would rather singing “Kupalinka” which is dear to every Belarusian. The film crew liked the song. There were people among the crowd of extras who were singing well. Zwick even noted that partisans were singing like a professional choir. But it wasn’t a flattering remark.

“Partisans are tired after a battle!” the director was shaking his head. “And they must sing this way!”

So they had to sing again…

By the way, actors were pleased by Zwick’s manner of work.

“After every take he said: “Terrific! Wonderful!” and continued: “Retake the single scene!” Anna Myaleshka, an actress performing a poor Jewish girl, recalls. “And we repeated again and again and again… And each take was brilliant, simply ideal, perfect, according to the director!”

Even Prima cigarettes are enjoyable beside Daniel Craig

Students of the Vilnius European Humanities University were taking part in the crowd of extras. One of them, a second year student Ihar Stankevich, told to “Telenedelya”:

“Each of us wanted to stand near James Bond, but it was not so easy to get near him! Once a scene was shot where two Soviet partisans were accompanying Bielski-Craig to their party’s commander passing a group of smoking guerillas. It was announced that smokers are needed for filming the scene. Both smokers and non-smokers rushed forward! Four takes were needed for rehearsal, and seven for shooting the episode. All this time I was near Daniel Craig. By the way, we were smoking “Prima” cigarettes. Later I asked the Lithuanian artistic director are they captured cigarettes, and he sadly answered: “I wish they were!... I managed to find them in Vilnius at a price of 7 Lithuanian litas (2.5 litas are equal to $1) per pack with difficulty!”

Your tea, sir!

Daniel Craig was diligently learning phrases, repeating them in every key. He tried to concentrate on the Russian text before the beginning of each take. The Hollywood star wasn’t to say anything difficult. Sometimes it was just two words, like “Good afternoon!” But the sensation of the film set was his affected “I demand categorically!” from a dialogue with a Soviet commanding officer, where he “timidly” asked medicines for his party.

Craig was patient. And only once he lost his temper. He was to sit with a mug of hot tea in his hands. An assistant was pouring more and more boiling water into the mug so that the tea seemed hot. By the end of the day the tea turned absolutely opaque… So Craig rebelled: “After all, I am an Englishman. Why should I sit with this pig wash in my cup?!”

And the actor was given fresh tea at once.

Smiling through tears

When a war drama is shot, it’s almost like actors live through a tragedy themselves. That is why jokes in the breaks, funny blunders help to recover balance of mind.

When one of the scenes was filmed, a mobile phone of an old man who performed as a ghetto elder rang. Shooting is a long process, and the elderly man dozed off. Groggy after the sleep, he could not turn off the insistent signal. Shooting was paused, and the director tried to help, but could not manage the phone as well. Finally, Zwick switched off the phone, while the whole filming crew was laughing. And then he had to apologize to the elder, as he didn’t remember his phone’s PIN-code!