Mini-series "Drops of Blood on Blooming Heather"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The literary work of Viktor Vasilyevich Smirnov "The Troubled Month of Spring", published in 1971, is characterized by rich ideological content, deep realism, and a reliable reflection of the mentality and everyday life of the characters. It is not oversaturated with propaganda, the attention is focused on the affirmation of universal human values. The story is unusually beautiful from an artistic point of view. Therefore, it is not surprising that this work received two adaptations. The first was the feature film of the same name in 1976 directed by Leonid Osyka, the second was its remake in the television format “Drops of Blood on Blooming Heather” in 2011. The mini-series consists of six episodes and has an IMDb rating of 7.00.

Storyline

The narration of the film "Drops of Blood on the Blooming Heather" begins with the return to the small Polissya village of Glukhara for the rehabilitation of a seriously wounded youngreconnaissance soldier Ivan Kapelyukha. The young man lives with his grandmother Serafima and thinks only of a speedy return to the front. However, the medical commission of the district town does not allow him to return to the war. At the same time, he offers serious and no less dangerous work in the rear. As part of a special squad, he must find and neutralize the Gorely gang hiding in the forests. So a young veteran with a disability becomes a "hawk" - a member of the fighter battalion.

Decent film adaptation

The project directed by Dmitry Iosifov and Viktor Smirnov, who acted as a screenwriter, has two names: "Summer of the Wolves" and "Drops of Blood on the Blooming Heather". The filming process of the series took place on the territory of the Republic of Belarus: partly in Grodno, but mostly near Minsk.

From the first episode, the film captivates with its atmosphere, created by the joint efforts of cameraman Alexei Tyagichev and composer Ruslan Muratov, and keeps you in unrelenting tension until the very end. Critics often accuse the authors of the project being too long, although not a single minute can be thrown out of the story: each of the mise-en-scenes is justified and interesting.

Pros and cons

Praiseworthy director's work: the visualization of the film is excellent. The script for the project "Drops of Blood on the Blooming Heather" can serve as a model for beginning playwrights. There are no extra scenes and unnecessary tedious dialogues in it - everything is just on topic. The characters are drawnvolumetric. Positive ones sympathize and empathize, negative ones encourage you to think about their personal motives and choices. The voice-over text is read by Yuri Nazarov - in his performance, such an author's technique seems to be extremely successful.

The mini-series “Drops of Blood on Blooming Heather” has no special shortcomings, as evidenced by its rating and reviews from the audience. However, professional film critics and ordinary people were somewhat embarrassed by the finale of the project. The ending is unnaturally crumpled, as if the creators were running out of time or the budget ran out and everything was filmed in one day.

Acting Ensemble

The peculiar, colorful and charismatic characters are deservedly considered a striking feature of the film “Drops of blood on flowering heather”. The merit in this is the performers involved in the production of the TV movie. All actors in their images are organic and convincing, so the characters are alive, involving the viewer in the whirlpool of events. The mini-series starred Alexey Bardukov (“Saboteur”, “Metro”), Igor Sklyar (“Take care of women”, “We are from Jazz”), Yulia Peresild (“Battle for Sevastopol”, “Bride”), Maria Kulikova (“First Attempt", "Landing"), Alexander Vorobyov ("Psych", "Oligarch"), Sergei Koltakov ("Valentina", "Mother Do not Cry"), Mikhail Evlanov ("Brest Fortress", "Own") and many others domestic artists who played with inspiration, organically and authentically.