Bodrov Sergei Sergeevich (1971-2002) - Russian film actor, screenwriter and director, television presenter. He became famous after the release of the cult films “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Brother”, “Brother-2”, “East-West”. Bodrov's films and roles were straightforward and honest, the actor was loved for his inner strength. He personified all the best that should be in a person.

Family

Dad, Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov, born in 1948, has Buryat roots on his father’s side. He is a very famous person in the world of cinema - screenwriter, film director and producer. His works were twice nominated for an Oscar (the films “Mongol” and “Prisoner of the Caucasus”). He is also engaged in literary activities and has published several collections of feuilletons and stories.

Mother, Bodrova Valentina Nikolaevna, was an art critic and taught at Moscow State University.

Mom and dad worked a lot, so little Seryozha very often had to stay at home alone. He coped well with loneliness, thought a lot, dreamed of becoming an actor in the future. But the father dissuaded his son from this profession, since the boy grew up too calm, and good artists, as a rule, come from bright, impulsive, emotional people.

Sergei's parents divorced in 1984. Dad married for the second time to the famous Kazakh artist and gallery owner Bekkulova Aizhan. In this marriage, a girl, Asya, was born, so Sergei has a half-sister on his father’s side.

Children's knowledge of life rules

As Sergei himself said, he made all the important discoveries in understanding the world before the age of sixteen. Then particularly significant events that would have excited him so much no longer happened. Based on this, the actor concluded: “What a person becomes is established in the first sixteen years of his life.”.

When Bodrov was little, he considered himself the smartest. It seemed to Seryozha then that it would be difficult to find someone smarter than him, well, maybe one of the adults could compete with him. He read L.N. Tolstoy’s book “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth” and was surprised that the great writer spoke about himself in exactly the same way, even verbatim. At the same time as reading the book, the child learned that the Universe is infinite. Then he made his first discovery that everyone has their own small inner world, and they all form a large and inexplicable world.

Once he stole a car from a friend, but when he brought it home, he couldn’t play with it. Seryozha suffered terribly, he was tormented by remorse. Then he told his mother about everything, and she gave her son advice: call or go to a friend’s parents and confess everything. He was very ashamed; even the thought of calling him seemed unbearable. But little Bodrov decided and made the call. Then the boy realized the difference between courageous and shameful actions; the latter are much easier to do. He also realized that determination and honesty make a person strong.

One summer Sergei was relaxing at a pioneer camp. There they wanted to appoint him as a standard bearer, but it turned out that at the end of the ceremony of carrying out the banner the canvas would have to be kissed. This seemed unnatural to Bodrov, and he refused the honorary appointment. In addition, he did not like an active social life, he did not like the game “candle” and did not want to learn to knock with sticks on the pioneer drum. It seems that he did nothing wrong, but pioneer activists hated him. At that moment, the guy realized that even a very good person cannot and will not be loved by everyone.

One day after class, Sergei and his classmates were in the school locker room. A primary school teacher walked by and thought that the kids were picking out other people's pockets. A showdown ensued, a parent meeting was called, the boys tried to justify themselves, but even their mothers and fathers doubted their own children. Then Sergei made his next life discovery: even if you are one hundred percent right, this does not mean that they will believe you. But one must always fight for the truth, because it has indestructible authority and power.

In high school there was a cultural exchange program, and Bodrov and his classmates went to Hungary. In the Hungarian house where Seryozha lived, there was a wine cellar; in their family they drank this drink instead of compote, and served cherry soup for dinner. Hungarian guys courted Russian girls, walked with them at night, drank wine and rode motorcycles. At the end of the program, a football match was supposed to take place between the Soviet and Hungarian boys, and the girls were invited as fans. According to Sergei, it was not just a match, but a real battle, something akin to the Battle of Borodino. Bodrov and his classmates won, and at that moment Sergei forever realized for himself what patriotism means.

Seryozha always had a keen sense of justice, so in high school, defending the truth, he often got into fights. Once I broke a classmate's nose. The investigator called this grievous bodily harm, but guaranteed not to open a case if Sergei reported on the distribution of pornographic photos at school. The man wrote on paper the phone number that Bodrov should call. Seryozha left the office, crumpled and threw away the piece of paper, discovering the following important rule: dignity should always be higher than fear.

There was a first love in Sergei’s life, and then a painful separation. He had a hard time experiencing this moment until he decided to compose a lyrical story. In the morning, at about four o'clock, the guy put the final point in his work, his soul felt light, he went to bed and realized what great power art has.

As Bodrov said: “These events had a huge impact on me and helped me grow into a better person.”.

Education

Seryozha graduated from Moscow school No. 1265, he studied in a class where they studied French in depth. Teachers remembered him as a cheerful, very active child, and noted that the boy was never dirty or angry.

Sergei got involved in work while still at school. Every day after school, he and his classmates took turns going to the Udarnitsa confectionery factory, where they packed sweets into boxes. The money earned went to the school, and then excursions were organized with it.

In elementary school, Sergei was going to become a garbage collector so that he could drive around Moscow in a large, bright orange car. But closer to finishing school, I again remembered my childhood dream of being an actor and decided to enter VGIK. And again his father influenced his decision; he explained to his son that the acting profession requires passion. And if it doesn’t exist, then you either have to wait for it to appear, or forget about this profession forever.

Having thought about it and not feeling such a passion in himself, Sergei in 1989 became a student at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. For five years he studied theory and history of art, his specialization was Venetian Renaissance painting. In 1994, he received a honors diploma and remained in graduate school, while firmly knowing that he would never become a librarian or museum worker.

When journalists subsequently asked him the question: “Has higher education been useful in life?”, Sergei answered that it was the university that taught him to see the beauty in the simple.

Film and television

Despite the lack of the necessary acting passion, by the age of twenty, Sergei already had some experience in cinema. He played cameo roles in his father's films:

• "I hate you";
• “SIR (Freedom is Heaven)”;
• "White King, Red Queen."

In 1995, Bodrov Sr. went to Dagestan to film the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus.” Seryozha asked to go with his father, promising to do any work assigned to him. But instead of an assistant, he became the main character in the film - private Vasily Zhilin. His partner in the film was Oleg Menshikov, who played the character of contract soldier Alexander Ryapolov.

This picture received many awards, and it brought Sergei Bodrov personally:

• prize for best role at the Sochi Film Festival;
• prize of the Baltic Pearl festival for best acting debut;
• State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art.

In 1996, at the Sochi Film Festival, Bodrov was introduced to screenwriter and director Alexei Balabanov, who suggested that Sergei make a good movie together. So he got the main role of Danila Bagrov in the cult film “Brother”. In Russia, the premiere took place at the end of 1997, and the character of Sergei was immediately recognized by film critics as a “people’s hero.”

“Brother” received the Grand Prix at film festivals in Sochi and Trieste, and special awards at festivals in Cottbus and Turin. The prize for performing the best male role was awarded to Bodrov at festivals in Chicago and Sochi, and he was also awarded the Golden Aries award. But the most important reward for Sergei was that his character Danila Bagrov became the idol and ideal of millions of viewers.

In 1998, Bodrov starred in the film “Stringer” directed by Pavel Pawlikowski. In 1999, he played one of the main roles in the film “East-West” directed by Regis Warnier. It was a joint work of French, Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian filmmakers. On the set, Bodrov had the opportunity to play with such famous film actors as Catherine Deneuve, Bogdan Stupka, Sandrine Bonner, Tatyana Dogileva, Oleg Menshikov.

In 2000, the long-awaited premiere of the film “Brother-2” took place. Seryozha continued to embody his character Danila Bagrov. The film was very warmly received by both film critics and viewers.

After that, Sergei played his father in two more films - security chief Dima in the film “Let's Do It Quickly” (2000) and Misha in the melodrama “Bear Kiss” (2002). He had another role as Captain Medvedev in Alexei Balabanov’s film “War” (2002).

In 2001, the film “Sisters” was released on the country’s screens, which became Sergei’s directorial debut. He is also the screenwriter of the film. In this work, Bodrov discovered the good actress Oksana Akinshina for Russian cinema, who made her debut in the role of Sveta’s older sister.

Sergei filmed his second film “Svyaznoy” in Vladikavkaz, the film remained unfinished, because during this filming he and his group died.

In addition to cinema, Sergei was in great demand on Russian television. After the release of the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus,” he was invited to host the “Vzglyad” program on the central ORT channel. Seryozha worked here from 1996 to 1999. He interrupted his work on television in connection with the filming of the films “Brother” and “Brother-2”. In 2001, he returned to Channel One as the host of the reality show “The Last Hero.”

Personal life

While working on television, Sergei met his future wife, Svetlana Sitina, the young woman was the author of such television projects as “Canon” and “Sharks of the Feather”. Their relationship began in Cuba, where both, together with their colleagues, went to cover a festival of youth and students.

At the beginning of 1998 they got married. In the summer of the same year, the couple had a girl, Olya. In August 2002, a month before Sergei’s death, his wife gave him a son, Alexander.

Now Sergei Bodrov’s wife works on Channel One as the director of the “Wait for Me” program, and his daughter is studying at the acting department of VGIK.

Death

In September 2002, the film crew of the film “Svyaznoy”, headed by director Sergei Bodrov, left for the Caucasus. On September 19, they filmed episodes in the women's colony in the city of Zelenokumsk, and on September 20 they planned to film in the Karmadon Gorge. In the evening, when it had already begun to get dark, the Kolka glacier came down and covered the entire gorge with its block. No one managed to escape. Large-scale search and rescue efforts were carried out for more than two years, but not a single body was found.

No one published an official obituary for Sergei Bodrov. He is considered missing, as are members of his film crew. The guys were covered by a giant block of ice, the volume of which was 80 million cubic meters. Neither a shovel nor a pickaxe can handle this hundred-meter block of thousand-year-old ice, and it will melt for many years.

Buried under the ice at the bottom of the Karmadon Gorge, Sergei remained forever young, a taciturn and stern guy fighting for the truth. There are many actors, and they play well, but not everyone succeeds in becoming a hero and symbol of an entire generation. Sergei succeeded because he was real, from God...

It is 15 years since the day when the beloved actor and director disappeared in the Karmadon Gorge along with the film crew.

Photo: still from the film

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In 2002, Sergei Bodrov Jr. filmed the film “Svyaznoy”. On September 20, a film group, more than a hundred people, was in the mountains of North Ossetia. Suddenly the Kolka glacier began to disappear. There was nowhere to run: the ice stream was moving at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour. In seconds, people were covered with a 300-meter layer of ice and stones...

The actor and director are remembered and loved by his fans. Komsomolskaya Pravda found out how the wife and son of Sergei Bodrov live today.

All People's Brother

Brother - Sergei Bodrov received this popular nickname after the main role in the film of the same name by Alexei Balabanov. In life, Bodrov was the complete opposite of his uncouth movie hero Danila Bagrov. An intellectual, he graduated with honors from the history department of Moscow State University, and spoke several foreign languages ​​fluently. There was no aggression in him at all; everyone called him a soul-man. Unlike his character in real life, he did not know how to shoot and did not serve in the army.

Sergei said to himself that he was not an artist. Bodrov defended his dissertation on history and could have become a scientist. But the directors paid attention to his textured appearance. “The cinema itself found him - you can’t run away from fate,” film critics would later say. The crazy success of the film “Brother” and “Brother-2” drew the line: Sergei Bodrov is an accomplished artist-nugget.

Everything was going well in his personal life. Sergei fell in love with Svetlana, the director of the “Vzglyad” program, from the first meeting. He said that he imagined what his wife would look like, and when he met Svetlana, he realized that it was her. A year after the wedding, in 1998, daughter Olya appeared. Four months before the avalanche, a second child was born - son Sasha. Bodrov kissed the children and left for North Ossetia to film the film “The Messenger.” Officially, Sergei did not die - he is still listed as missing. He was only 30 years old.

The wife raised the children alone

Sergei Bodrov Sr. (the director has lived and worked in America for a long time with his second wife) refused the inheritance in favor of his daughter-in-law. He only said that he wanted to see his grandchildren more often - that’s all he had left of his only son. After the tragedy, Svetlana never married again. She raised two children alone.

Today the Bodrov family lives in a four-room apartment in Moscow, and they have a cottage outside the city. Olya is an excellent student, graduated from high school with a gold medal. My son Alexander is 15 years old and is still in school. Svetlana Bodrova does not go out into the world, does not participate in public events and carefully protects her personal space. For many years, the woman worked in the famous program “Wait for me”; in recent years she has been an employee of the VID television company. There are rumors in television circles that, although Svetlana has not married, she is not alone - she has a close friend who has become her support.

Sergei's daughter Olga entered GITIS last year, into the acting department in the workshop of director Leonid Kheifets. By the way, Sergei Bodrov himself was going to VGIK after school, but his parents were categorically against it. The girl does not use the star name and once again tries not to say what family she is from.

The competition at the most prestigious film school in the country was huge - 1000 people per place. But Olya managed to charm the examination committee.

Only at the end of the exams did one of the teachers directly ask: “Are you Bodrov’s daughter?” She was embarrassed and said: “Yes.” But this did not in any way influence the decision to admit her to the university in my workshop,” says her teacher, director Leonid Kheifets.

The transformative word "prostitute"

Upon admission, there was an unusual story,” Olga’s classmate Valentin Sadiki told Komsomolskaya Pravda. - We didn’t know then whose daughter Olya was. And so she came to the exam, so all correct, little angel, she began to read something exactly. And suddenly Leonid Efimovich Kheifets said one word to her: prostitute! And then... Olya immediately changed from the inside and showed her temperament. At first glance, one might think that Olya had the role of a lyrical heroine, but Leonid Efimovich instantly unsettled her with a biting remark and revealed her potential characteristics.

I can’t talk about Olya now, singling her out - for me, all students are equal,” Kheifetz said in a conversation with KP. “When she finishes her studies, I’ll tell you what kind of actress she is.” Olga never talks about her father. And I don't ask her about it.

Olya has an inner strength that is very noticeable,” fellow student Ekaterina Pilat told KP. - She is a very active person, passionate about both her profession and her life. Olya’s mother and her brother came to her university for exams and shows.

- Does she have a lover on the course?

Not on the course. And everyone has feelings. But ask Olya about this.

Commemorative coin

According to family friends, Olya often watches films with her father.

A friend of mine works at GITIS and says that Olya is trying very hard - she would like her father to be proud of her, says former director of Dzhigurda Antonina Savrasova. - By the way, she still has gifts from her father. When Sergei studied at the history department, he went to excavations. From there he brought ancient coins and artifacts - all this is stored in the house. One of her father’s coins even became Olga’s amulet. Protects her and her family from misfortune. This is a gold coin of the Crimean Khanate, approximately 15th century. Sergei found it at excavations in Kerch.

Olya said that she remembers her dad, although she was four years old when he disappeared. There are memories of how he picked her up, fed her berries, and blew soap bubbles with her. Olya grew up to be a sensible, thoughtful person. She can be called a worthy successor to the famous family. Bodrov’s son Sasha is interested in history and is thinking of enrolling in the history department of Moscow State University, like his dad.

BY THE WAY

Danila Bagrov's sweater was bought at a second-hand store

Director Balabanov's wife Nadezhda Vasilyeva, an artist, recalled that it was she who found a large knitted sweater for the actor who played the role of Danila Bagrov in the film “Brother”. Nadezhda bought it at a second-hand store for 35 rubles. After filming, the sweater was kept by her. When the tragedy happened in the Karmadon Gorge, Vasilyeva packed the sweater and gave it to Svetlana Bodrova with the words: “Keep it for your son.” This movie sweater is kept in the family as an heirloom.

AND AT THIS TIME

He was prouder of his dissertation on history than of his roles

I call the mother of the deceased actor on the home phone, Sergei Bodrov’s uncle answers the phone.

Sergei’s mother and I will fly to Karmadon on September 20, where mourning events will take place,” Mikhail Nikolaevich told KP. - Sergei’s father was there recently. I don’t know whether he’ll fly now - he’s in America.

- Sergei’s mother was very upset. How is she now?

Time does not heal. In memory of her son, she published Sergei’s book - the dissertation “Architecture in Venetian Renaissance Painting.” This is his scientific work. (The front title of the book contains the artist’s recognition: “I am prouder of the fact that I wrote my dissertation than of any of my roles...” - Ed.)

MYSTIC

The actor's head was walled up in the wall

No one could have imagined that Bodrov’s expedition to the Karmadon Gorge could end in tragedy. But today, researchers of the actor’s life find various mystical signs that supposedly predicted trouble.

Nine months before that tragic day when the Kolka glacier came down from the mountains, Sergei gave his friend a rubber dummy of his own head for his birthday (this was a prop necessary for the future film), says writer Alexey Kazakov, author of the book “The Roles That Brought misfortune to their creators." - At the same time, the eyes on the masked face were closed. The cheerful friends performed a comic ritual: they walled up a replica of “Bodrov’s head” in a wall in the basement of one of the ancient buildings in the center of Moscow with a note: “For posterity, with greetings from the current generation.” Apparently, it was a comic parody of Soviet traditions, when messages for posterity were laid everywhere. However, some of my loved ones did not appreciate such humor and saw it as an unkind sign.

CALL TO DAUGHTER

Olga BODROVA:

I'm not going to change my last name

Olga Bodrova does not like to talk to journalists about her star father. As well as about myself. Nevertheless, we called the artist’s daughter to congratulate her on her first attempt at cinema - she recently starred in a short film by her fellow student Valentin Sadiki.

- Olga, you played your first role in your life. Congratulations!

Nothing yet. The film hasn't come out yet. And anyway, this is just a short film. If you are collecting material about my dad, that’s one thing. There’s nothing to write about me yet - I’m a second-year student. When I become an actress, then it’s a different story. Now I have done nothing to deserve such attention.

But you didn't change your last name. They will always say about you that you are the daughter of that same Sergei Bodrov - there is no escape from this...

I'm not going to leave. And I'm not going to change my last name.

People and ice

Valentina Bodrova, mother of Sergei Bodrov, asks for help again

Valentina BODROVA, the mother of the actor and director Sergei Bodrov who died in Karmadon, again contacted Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Valentina Nikolaevna essentially became a symbol of hope and resistance in this tragedy. Whatever the verdict of the expert commissions, you must agree that the mother always wants the search to continue. Our conversation with her is about this and about the people on the glacier.

What's happening in Karmadon now?

On May 30, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations suspended search operations due to their alleged inexpediency. In fact, the work continues, since the government of North Ossetia knows very well that the conclusion of the Ministry of Emergency Situations is unreliable.

That is?

There were three tunnels, two of which were clearly pierced by mudflows. But one stood in such a way that the ice covered it from above. Local residents assumed that the tunnel was not covered by the mudflow and there could have been people there. I want to especially emphasize that this did not necessarily have to be Seryozha Bodrov’s group. For us, it doesn’t matter who exactly. When we arrived there with Serezha’s father, Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov, they showed us the approximate place where the group could be, and they said that the group was under ice 150 meters thick. Indeed, it was impossible to find living people in the Karmadon Gorge. And the only place could be this tunnel. The Ossetians came there and started digging with shovels and looking for this tunnel. After which they were joined by Muscovites and Leningraders. The avalanche occurred on September 20, and on the third day it was concluded that all the tunnels had been examined and all were clogged with mudflow. According to our assumptions, the third tunnel might not have been clogged with a mudflow. And we began to look for him. They searched blindly. Because there were no drawings. This took about 6 months. It was hellish work, because they carried explosives, logs, and equipment over the mountains by hand. We are grateful for all possible assistance to the President and government of North Ossetia, the Republican Ministry of Emergency Situations, and private organizations.

Have you turned to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for help?

Certainly. But when we turned to the Ministry of Emergency Situations for help, the work was delayed. What could have been done in one day took a week, two, three. If professionals, with the necessary technical equipment, immediately took on this, I think the work would go faster. In the end we found the tunnel. Subsequently, the Ministry of Emergency Situations stated that it was they who found him. I declare once again that the tunnel was found by us at random. This may be funny, but it turned out that a 19-year-old girl showed us the place where to drill a well. Out of desperation we decided to give it a try. And they hit it. But they didn’t fall straight into the tunnel, but slightly to the side. Afterwards we were at a reception at the Ministry of Emergency Situations and asked them to send divers who could go down there. The Deputy Minister even suggested that we invite independent divers. The divers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived. With our men at 4 o'clock in the morning we went down into the well. The entire descent with preparations took half an hour. The diver was under water for several minutes, twirled around and walked around. After this, without saying a word, Deputy Minister Korotkin and the Minister of Emergency Situations of North Ossetia left to confer. We were not given any official conclusion. On the same day, while crossing the pass, we met a car from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in which the ministers were traveling. Korotkin told us that the tunnel was clogged with mudflows and there was nothing there. We asked that our own diver go down with the Ministry of Emergency Situations diver. “If our diver says, together with yours, that everything is full, we will leave Karmadon.” Korotkin agreed, but suggested that the EMERCOM divers had already left. We moved on. On the way, we saw an Emergency Ministry vehicle near the restaurant. We tried to talk to the divers sitting in the restaurant, but it turned out that they were forbidden to talk to their relatives. The next day we invited a diver from a local station, who was not equipped like the divers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He went down into the well and said - there is a passage. He couldn't stay there for long - he was wearing a light diving suit. The next day, Belarusian diver Igor Matyuk, who is engaged in lifting military equipment from the swamps, came to us and confirmed that it was possible to pass. We made an explosion and he entered the tunnel. There was no seat. There was water and clean river sand. On the day when we met a company of ministers on the road, Korotkin reported to Shoigu on television throughout the country that the diver had entered the tunnel, the tunnel was clogged with mudflows, and it was not advisable to work further. And they gave recommendations to the government of North Ossetia to stop work.

We assume that sand and water are only at the bottom of the tunnel, that further up there could still be empty space. The point is not that Bodrov’s group should be there somewhere; there could be other people there. For Ossetians, it is considered a curse not to find the body of the deceased. But that's not the point. We're not looking for bones. But people need to know what happened. Since we have already gotten there, since we have worked so hard, worked hard, then we insist that the Ministry of Emergency Situations help us walk these 200 meters.

Is this what prompted you to write a letter to the President?

Yes, the Ministry of Emergency Situations chose the role of a passive observer of our ordeals, excluding those few rescuers who humanly wanted to help us. The Russian President rightly said that he has no reason not to trust these people. But Vladimir Vladimirovich has no reason not to trust us. Unfortunately, we cannot convey our information to the President. Yes, we sent a letter, but it was forwarded to Shoigu. We would like to tell our truth. We are not making this up, please come and take a look. That's the crux of the problem.

Why do you think the role of a passive observer was chosen?

The bureaucratic machine must have worked. On the third day the conclusion was given, and the officials did not want to reverse the move. Of course, the picture of what happened was terrible. Apocalypse. But there is a ton. Little of. A few days ago, a cassette tape from a video camera was discovered, which was absolutely undamaged! In general, it is absolutely clear to us that the information that reached the President is incorrect. Something needs to be done about this. Work continues now. Our guys bought diving suits and continue to work. There is no hysteria there, as they say in the newspapers. Our goal, I spoke about this in a March interview with RG, is to leave the glacier as soon as possible. And you can achieve it by helping us.

Were there any officials on the glacier itself?

Shoigu flew around in a helicopter; he did not go down there. It is likely that he simply does not know this situation. He himself did not see anything. His deputy Korotkin was on the glacier.

Valentina Nikolaevna, it feels like after Seryozha disappeared, you live only in Ossetia...

Yes, this is exactly what I live for. I am there. I need to finish this.

But, you see, I don’t want there to be a bias towards Seryozha. Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov, Seryozha’s father, also objects to talking only about our son.

How are you without him?

I wouldn't like to answer this question.

Do they write letters to you?

Yes, letters come to Karmadon, hundreds of letters. Parcels are arriving.

Are you offended by the attitude of the Ministry of Emergency Situations?

I'm not offended, I'm just surprised. This amazes me. I don't know what this is connected with. They just don’t hear the person, they don’t want to understand him. They say that some money is being laundered, that custom articles are being written. Humanly, I cannot understand this. I’m not offended by anyone, we just don’t want to be disturbed, that’s all.

People work there for months. How do they live, what do they talk about?

We constantly talk about things and how to solve them. But in human terms, life goes on there normally, natural life. Sometimes not everything works out, but they move on. This is hellish work. Everything is done by hand. Tons of ice...

Nobody cries there. And I never cried. Nobody complains about anything.

It is impossible to convey how difficult this is. And you know... No one met us or talked to us. If there were meetings, it was only at our request. But no one can explain themselves in human terms. It happened and happened. Yes, our women recently received 15 thousand rubles in compensation.

Tatiana Vladykina

On September 20, 2002, a glacier collapsed in the Karmadon Gorge. When members of the film crew of Sergei Bodrov Jr. signed an agreement with the STV film company, they probably did not pay attention to the eighth point - “Acts of force majeure.” By “force majeure” they meant fires, epidemics, wars and natural disasters. Something that “the parties could not and should not have foreseen.”

Parents who were packing their children for North Ossetia and buying them warm jackets to keep them warm in the mountains were worried about many things. About the fact that Chechnya is nearby. It never occurred to anyone that their children would die because of the glacier. A cold, snow-white glacier adorns the covers of school notebooks, photo albums and even calendars in every room of the Vladikavkaz Hotel in Ossetia. From here, the film crew of the film "Svyaznoy" on September 20, 2002, at six in the morning, left in a convoy under the protection of local riot police and traffic police to film in the Karmadon Gorge and never returned.

Alexey Balabanov: farewell

The Caucasian Shepherd Dog, trained by dog ​​handlers, was brought from Moscow by Dima Surguchev. In another container he was carrying two vipers. They say that the mountaineers have a belief: if you catch a viper, tear off its head with your teeth and eat its living heart, you will lose fear and have two lives. The Viper was one of the "heroes" of the film.

The scene with the viper was rehearsed in Moscow. This was Bodrov’s condition - the viper in the frame must be alive. And the condition for the actor chosen to play the role of Ilyas. If you can, the role is yours. Khazbi Galazov had their eye on Ilyas. He just graduated from the Ossetian course at the Shchukin School. Khazby called Vladikavkaz: “Mom, I’ve never seen a viper. I’m so scared.”

We rehearsed in a regular room. Svetlana Bodrova, Sergei’s wife, then brought Khazbi’s mother, Rosa, a cassette recording of this sample. They spread newspapers on the floor and released a viper on them. Doctors were sitting nearby. If you remove the poison from a viper, it is harmless for a while. Khazbi caught the viper, pressed its head hard, and released the poison. He gathered his courage, bit it with his teeth and threw it on the floor. They used a knife to look for the viper's heart. Khazbi put the bloody piece on his palm and swallowed it. He got the role.

The heart turned out to be very small, and when Khazbi put it on his palm, it no longer beat. Bodrov needed a beating heart.

The heart was made by Olya Zhukova, the film's make-up artist. Olya is 23 years old, she stayed with everyone under the glacier. I took a condom, stuck a piece of foam plastic into it, glued scraps of fabric, made “vessels,” painted it red, and tied it to a tube. If you blow into the tube, it seems that the heart is pulsating as if it were alive. She brought it to Bodrov in her hand. Olya made two hearts - one larger, the other smaller. The larger one returned to her mother, Tatyana Zhukova, with Olya’s things. Small - left in the mountains...

That day of filming was strange. They never removed the glacier - it was covered with clouds. We waited a long time for the sun - it never appeared. The sheep did not obey and huddled together in fear. The horses were nervous. The Caucasian Shepherd howled, whined and pressed itself to the ground. She howled all night the night before. Bodrov was upset and didn’t eat anything that day, although on September 19 Renata Meliksetyants brought a sumptuous home-cooked lunch to the shoot.

At seven in the evening Bodrov interrupted filming. The next day he wanted to go to the mountains at four in the morning to film the sunrise.

It was as if it was a black night in the mountains. There was one hour and ten minutes left before the glacier disappeared. By complete coincidence, the UAZ with Igor Grinyakin and Frenchwoman Nathalie Vautrin, assistants to the film's cameraman Dani Gurevich, was the first to leave. Danya is French. His parents are Russian and live in Paris. Danya graduated from VGIK. I learned Russian in Moscow. Igor saw a strange flash through the rear window of the UAZ, but did not attach any significance to it.

A group in a convoy in several cars with riot police and traffic police officers set off.

Soslan Makiev, who advised Bodrov in Ossetia, was delayed for twenty minutes. When he set off in the Niva to catch up with the convoy, his car suddenly moved, thunder was heard, lightning flashed and water fell on the windshield. When he got out of the car, a black mass lay twenty meters ahead. She blocked the road. What he mistook for lightning later turned out to be an avalanche that tore down high-voltage wires, and thunder was the sound of its descent. He returned to the hotel in Vladikavkaz all night, taking a detour, off-road. Only at five in the morning did he arrive at the hotel. There was no group there.

When they arrived in the mountains at seven in the morning, the picture was shocking. The glacier fell from a height of two kilometers and in nine minutes, cutting off rocks, demolished eighteen and a half kilometers. High on the rocks there are traces of birds. They were pressed to the rocks like casts. Black ice lay everywhere, littered with stones. The mass stuck out like a ruff, moved, burst as if alive. There were no illusions left.

23 people from the main film crew remained under the glacier. The oldest, production designer Vladimir Kartashov, was 41 years old, Bodrov - 31. All the rest were boys and girls 20-24 years old. With them are twenty locals: drivers, traffic police and riot police officers, seven artists from the Vladikavkaz equestrian theater "Narty". The youngest of the Ossetians, Zaurbek Tsirikhov, was 19. He begged to be taken into the group. Bodrov was his idol.

Relatives came from St. Petersburg and Moscow. They lived in the rooms of their overwhelmed children, visited the glacier, collected the children's things and left in complete shock. Only Ossetians remained at the glacier. It was a tragedy not only for the film crew. Larisa Tsarakhova’s husband, brother and brother’s daughter, four years old, disappeared; Irbek Khodov’s mother-in-law, son-in-law, wife and two children, five and two years old, disappeared. Roza Galazova did not take her eyes off the glacier - her Khazbi was there.

The artist Vladimir Nosik and his wife Elena came to Karmadon later than everyone else. Their son, 24-year-old Timofey Nosik, worked as the director of the film crew. In the place where local resident Aza last saw the cars of Bodrov’s group heading towards the tunnel, the height of the ice, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, reached one hundred and fifty meters. The miner Taimuraz descended onto the ice, tied with ropes. He returned in shock, he was shaking - he heard cries for help.

From that moment on, the family decided not to leave the glacier. Their hope was the tunnel. There could be people in the tunnel. No one believed that the height of the ice in this place was one hundred and fifty meters. People brought shovels - the ice did not budge. He turned out to be strong. When they drilled it later, chips flew like marble. Then they decided to blow up the ice. We asked the North Ossetian Emergency Situations Ministry for fifty kilograms of explosives - a piece flew off the ice. Then Vladimir Semenovich Gavaza appeared on the glacier.

Gavaza is a unique explosive. All explosives experts in Russia know him. Gavaza turned to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of North Ossetia and to the commander of the 58th Army Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov. He was given eighty tons of explosives. Later, the relatives needed about one hundred and twenty tons to go only part of the way.

Grief of relatives

Relatives from Moscow and St. Petersburg began to come to the glacier. The parents of lighting designer Andrei Novikov are Elena and Anatoly. The father of another lighting designer, 24-year-old Andrei Volokushin, is Sasha Volokushin from St. Petersburg. Valya and Sergey Syromyatnikov. Their daughter Natasha previously worked as an assistant costume designer on the TV series “The Idiot.” The twin brother of production designer Vladimir Kartashov, Alexander, came to Ossetia. Svetlana Bodrova, the wife of Sergei Jr., came several times. Valentina Nikolaevna Bodrova, his mother, lived on the glacier for several months. Elena Nosik did not see her daughters, also twins, Katya and Dasha, for four months. Vladimir Nosik went to Moscow only to play plays and returned back. Timofey’s father-in-law, Alexander Kavunovsky, never left Ossetia.

They still live there to this day. Below, under the glacier, there are children. Up on the mountain, in tents, are the parents. All together, side by side. Three huge cauldrons. Women cook food in them. The tents have a homemade stove. Many people got sick here in winter. Here no one takes the keys out of the car or hides anything. And everyone who enters the tent city is greeted by a plywood nailed to a stick with the inscription: “Before you move in, think: you are needed there.”

Gavaza blew up forty meters of ice. The explosives were carried along a narrow mountain path. Twenty-five centimeters is a path, below is an abyss, one and a half kilometers to go. Volunteers came from all over the country. Then they started drilling. They drilled a hole, laid explosives, cleaned and lined the walls of the well with timber. They dug a well forty-two meters high. Then we went horizontally. We dug several eighty-meter corridors in different directions. During this time, the glacier dropped about thirty meters. Below, the water is waist-deep, icy. We worked in this water around the clock. At first there were three shifts, later - four. Sasha Volokushin said: “The conditions here are difficult. I am an absolutely flat-footed person, but my Soviet army training came in handy. You come from the glacier, where you work so hard that everything hurts, and the bed is damp. You heat the stove. You lie down. Until the blanket dries on you, until three - You don’t sleep until five.” No one in the world could have imagined that it was possible to gnaw, dig, drill, or explode one hundred and fifty meters of ice. They did it. And they didn’t find the tunnel.

Nana found the tunnel. Nana is nineteen years old and clairvoyant. Georgian, lives in Vladikavkaz. Sees the living and the dead. Before this, two people came to her, relatives of those who perished in the avalanche. She said that both were dead, but one would be found and the other would not. And the one about whom she said - you will find, they really found, the body was buried. To Irbek Khodov, whose five relatives had disappeared, she said: “Yours are dead.” Now that it has melted, he actually found pieces from the car in which they were traveling.

Nana pointed to a point twenty meters from where they were searching. The point was drilled and entered the cavity. They called hydroacoustics from Moscow - Dmitry Mikhailovich Frolov, he worked on the Kursk, and his assistant. They arrived at the glacier with their equipment. The cavity was scanned. It was a tunnel. A diver went down there and found fragments of concrete. They walked eight meters through the tunnel. The tunnel is large - eight meters wide, six meters high, its length is 286 meters. It is filled with river sand and water, but has a slope. At a certain place the sand and water run out, and after a hundred meters there may be a dry space.

They don't know who is there in this space. Or what's left of them. None of us knows how to behave in such situations. When there is no body, there is no one to bury. When your boy or girl is just over twenty and needs to start in life. No longer a child, but not yet an adult. And every minute - morning, afternoon, night - hope remains: “What if?” Suddenly he is alive!

Timofey Nosik, the son of artist Vladimir Nosik, married Nastya Kavunovskaya a month before the tragedy. Nastya was pregnant. Dasha was born without a father. On the night of the glacier's collapse, from September 20 to 21, the wife of Yanis Tedeev, a riot police officer guarding Bodrov's group, gave birth to a son. She was not immediately told what had happened. Roza Galazova, Khazbi’s mother, remembers with tears the last conversation with her son. “Mom, what if they show a movie and I’m not there? So you know, at the end of the film Bodrov and I die. We both explode in the car. You’ll start shouting: “Where has my son gone?” So don’t panic. movie!" Rose replied: “Okay, son, as long as you are alive.”

The mountain they were filming on that day still stands. Next to it is the “City of the Dead”. In ancient times, people sick with the plague came here to die. There are still skulls and human bones in the crypts. On the same mountain, on the other side, there is a cemetery. Ossetians go there with two pies. Two pies means they are remembered. And in the tent city where the relatives of the missing live, they bring only three pies. Everyone here is looking for the living. Celebrating their birthdays. You can't use the word "was" here. Such is the power of love and hope.

We are very far from nature. Urban people, we see the sky on TV more often than in person, and we don’t think about the fact that in nature there is an “action of force majeure.”

You should definitely visit the glacier. There you understand what is truly valuable, that you cannot abandon your loved one in trouble.

We are always missing something. There aren't enough diamonds. But we ourselves are also missing.

Six months after the tragedy, Larisa Kesaonova’s mother died. I couldn't cope with the loss of my grandson. Alan Kesaonov, an artist at the Narty equestrian theater, was on set that day. Zaurbek Tsirikhov's aunt, Fatima Salbieva, raised her nephew herself. His mother died when the boy was three years old. That day Fatima got up at five in the morning. She made Zaurbek take a cap to the mountains. The next day, her mother had a stroke. Timur Begizov, the brother of the only female cavalryman from the Narty theater, Marina Begizova, still does not allow his mother onto the glacier. Marina was not supposed to film that day. By evening, he and two theater artists, Ruslan Tokhtiev and Viktor Zaseev, became worried about horses. There are strong winds in the mountains, horses could catch a cold. We returned with a group. They did not reach the city.

At VGIK, Danya Gurevich, Timofey Nosik and Petya Buslov (Buslov's debut - "Boomer" - today the box office leader in Russian box office) shot a student short film - "The Hard Work of the Old Moiras." About how the thread of fate is woven. Moiras are goddesses of fate. They are blind, which means they are ruthless. They sat and spun the thread of fate, and one of them cut the thread. It depended on her when a person's life would end.

None of the guys knew then that this was a film about Danya, Timofey, Sergei Bodrov and about forty-four other members of the film crew of the film “Svyaznoy”, which we will never see. Natasha Syromyatnikova’s mother, saying goodbye, said: “I can’t live without my daughter. I live only in Karmadon and I won’t give up my child to an avalanche.”

"City of dead"

They are only looking for their living children. They're not crazy. They just can't believe they're not there. And they do the impossible for them. At least to say: “We did everything we could for you.”

Natalya Rtishcheva

CHRONICLE OF THE DISASTER

The Kolka Glacier is located in the eastern part of the central Caucasus and overlooks the Genaldon River basin. Its length is 8.4 km, area - 7.2 square meters. km. At the end of the 19th century, the glacier became isolated, and in 1902 a mudflow of stone and ice passed along the Genaldon River at enormous speed, sweeping away everything in its path. Many people and thousands of livestock caught in the gorge died. The progress of 1969 proceeded almost unnoticed by people. The glacier covered 1,300 meters in a week and stopped by January 10, 1970, having advanced 4 km. Then the behavior of the glacier was constantly monitored and people were notified of the possible consequences.

The Karmadon Gorge was a favorite vacation spot for the residents of the republic. Families and groups of friends came here, they built recreation centers and campsites. In the summer of 2002, it rained endlessly in the mountains. A number of settlements were flooded. Subsequently, it was rumored that the glacier collapse could have been provoked by the pyrotechnic actions of Bodrov’s film group. But experts categorically rejected this version. Debate immediately began as to whether the disaster could have been avoided. The North Ossetian authorities believed that it was impossible to predict when the glacier would begin its rapid movement. They were told that if the services for monitoring the behavior of the glacier had remained, the scale of human casualties would have been much less.

Two days later, the author of these lines was already at the Vladikavkaz airport. It was necessary to get to Karmadon, where the glacier descended, by a detour through the neighboring Kurtatinskoe gorge. But even there there were armed people at the entrance. Only when we identified ourselves as locals was the barrier raised in front of us. The road twisted between bushes; we passed several villages that had been damaged by floods back in May-July. Pitiful patches of vegetable gardens were swept away by a powerful stream, barns and farmyards were filled with silt and stones. According to local residents, they had high hopes for the humanitarian assistance promised by the government of the republic, but it turned out to be nothing. One of the flood victims reported that when she was given a bucket of potatoes under the guise of humanitarian aid, she angrily returned the “gifts” to the benefactors. We reached Karmadon, which means “warm water” in Ossetian. To our right were the dilapidated buildings of a once popular sanatorium. Here the road makes another loop, and suddenly we find ourselves nose to nose with a gloomy gray mass of ice, sand and stone - this is the Kolka glacier. Scientists have calculated that the speed of the glacier reached 180 kilometers per hour. Perhaps, on normal roads, Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher could have walked away from here, but even then it’s unlikely. On the left there is a deep abyss, one wrong movement of the steering wheel and you are at the bottom. In those days, the gorge was a fantastic sight, comparable only to the landscape on some uninhabited planet. Mountains of gravel and ice, fog enveloping the entire gorge. There are cars parked along the road. Some people come specifically to see what happened. Nearby are two, father and son, who miraculously escaped that tragic evening. Soslan, that’s his son’s name, was celebrating his twentieth birthday. The guests left at the end of the evening. After some time, they also gathered. But a friend almost by force forced them to stay longer. We sat and remembered the old times. Suddenly the wind sounded like a storm, the high-voltage transmission lines sparkled, there was a terrible roar, and the electricity went out. Nevertheless, we must go. In the headlights, we suddenly saw a huge black mass around the bend, blocking the road. I had to turn around and go home through the neighboring gorge. That same evening, employees of the republic’s parliament came to the university recreation center to celebrate the birthday. Two of them also managed to escape miraculously. One felt unwell and left a few minutes before the glacier disappeared, and the other was already on the way by mobile phone and asked to return urgently. The rest were not so lucky. And the locals also said that after work, the mowers went down to the warm springs to swim. No one knows where their bodies are now.

Officially, 19 people are listed as dead and 108 missing. In fact, the number of victims is much higher, residents of Karmadon believe. Nikolai Pliev did not lose hope of finding his son Albert. He turned to various clairvoyants, who assured him that Albert was alive and that an elderly man and a girl were also with him. Psychics cited such intimate details as evidence that they were believed. The early days suggested that those caught in the disaster zone might have ventured far into the forests or mountains. But time passed, and the missing were not reported. In many families, in order to somehow fulfill their last duty to loved ones, the burial ceremony was carried out as follows: they brought stones and ice from the ill-fated Kolka and buried them in the cemetery.

One of my fellow travelers remembered that in 1969 he worked on a fuel tanker and delivered fuel to a helicopter, which, together with glaciologists, regularly flew around the mountain range. Then the glacier did not show itself in any way. Then the surveillance services were abolished. And then Kolka dealt her insidious and terrible blow to unsuspecting people. However, it is known that shepherds who often visited these places tried to warn the authorities that the glacier had come to life. The advance, according to their measurements, was 17 meters. But the shepherds' statements were not heeded. After all, until the thunder strikes...

On Friday it was announced that the search for victims of the Kolka glacier, which collapsed last fall in North Ossetia, will stop on June 2. We are talking about a tunnel under the Karmadon Gorge, around which passions are now boiling. Enthusiasts continue to make their way into the tunnel; experts consider this extremely dangerous and futile. This is how the chairman of the North Ossetian government formulated the problem.

Mikhail Shatalov:
“I met with the parents of Bodrov, Nosik, Tsygarev. We said that if within a few days the work of the invited diver from St. Petersburg did not produce any results, then we would stop this work. The diver expressed the inappropriateness of further work. Therefore, today we adopted a resolution to close the search work only in the adit.”

Meanwhile, relatives of the missing (no one utters the word “dead” here) claim that a car may have been found in the Karmadon tunnel.

According to information from other sources, fragments of the car of the film crew of Sergei Bodrov Jr. were found in a completely different place. Now a version is spreading that the film crew could not approach the tunnel at all, which means there is no one to look for there.

From the Karmadon Gorge we received a report from our special correspondent Alexei Egorov, who a week ago himself went down into the adit.

The relatives of the missing people learned from us about the closure of work in the Karmadon Gorge: no one officially told those living in the camp anything. For eight months, these people spent every day searching for their loved ones. And today the authorities decided to put an end to their work.

Vladimir Gavaza, bomber:
According to bare forecasts, we have about ten days left, or at most two weeks. And we can enter the tunnel under certain conditions and appropriate assistance to make sure whether anyone is there or not... .

Vladimir Gavaza is a world-class bomber. His name is included in the Guinness Book of Records. And why the authorities do not listen to the opinion of this specialist is not clear. However, the camp authorities do not need much help from the authorities. Both food and gasoline have long been purchased here at their own expense.

Konstantin Dzherapov, volunteer:
“As I understand it, the government is saying that they are taking away all of their equipment: their tractors - that is, we will not have a road and we will have to walk... If we don’t have equipment, then we will get the earth with buckets. If they try to touch our pipe, it will be very unpleasant, but we won’t let them near the pipe.”

Exactly a week ago we descended into that same “pipe,” that is, an adit. And we saw how the divers worked. And today we went to the glacier again. With the onset of summer, it began to melt and huge masses of ice bring material evidence of the tragedy to the surface every day.

While you are walking along the glacier, you catch yourself thinking that you are constantly looking at your feet. And not only because there may be cracks in the ice; you really want to find something. Any thing brought from the glacier will be perceived in the camp as a small celebration. So far we have managed to find an orange pen, or rather its remains.

On the tragic day of September 20, the glacier passed in this place at a speed of 160 km/h. It was simply impossible for those in the valley to survive. The tunnel is the only place where people could hide. But they say there are witnesses who saw the film crew’s cars driving into it.

Valentina Bodrova, mother of Sergei Bodrov:
“I am a mother, I will fight my way through the mountain, and I will still look for the blood and bones of my son. I promise you this!

The official closure of work will take place in three days on June 2. Meanwhile, a new batch of fuel and food was delivered to the camp today. No one is going to leave here voluntarily.