The filming of “Say It In Russian” was a complex operation, with four different crews shooting in Russia in the snow (twice), Paris in the rain, Malibu in the sun, downtown Los Angeles and on sound stages north of L.A.—all in a six week period.
Much of the film’s plot was based on events in the life of leading lady Agata Gotova. A young Russian woman meets an American businessman in Paris and they fall in love. Together they travel to Moscow to attend her father’s wedding. But things don’t work out quite the way they had hoped. Mobsters who want him to release their boss, and his former colleague, from jail, threaten the father, a senior government official. All are in grave danger.
Despite the experience the filmmakers had of working in Russia they weren’t prepared for problems awaiting them. Crew members attempted to extort them for more money. They even had problems filming a wedding scene in a church. The bishop threatened to bring in the police if they continued to shoot. The problem was not that they were filming a wedding, but that an actor performing the wedding was dressed as a priest. That was sacrilegious.
Celentano suggested that the bishop himself perform the wedding. The cleric agreed, but warned that as he was a real priest the two actors would actually get married. “Whatever! She’s my wife anyway,” said the director. But the bishop took too long, so the scene was shot with the actor, while the bishop was kept out of his church. By the time the police arrived the “priest” had been hustled out of a backdoor. In the very final shot the happy couple can be seen standing at the altar, but no priest.
So, after several painful days the film company quit and returned later, picking a different—and honest—crew, and had a much happier shoot. They hired an ex KGB officer to clear a bureaucratic path for them. When he showed his “red passport” to policemen trying to stop filming in Red Square, they melted into the distance.
On the day the group was set to leave Moscow they found their way to the airport blocked by a parade and the police would not let them pass. Leading lady Agata Gotova is not the kind of person to accept such a situation. When she was told that the head of the Moscow Police was sitting in a car up ahead, she ran at top speed through the heavy snow until she reached him. She pleaded with him, saying that her husband’s visa was about to expire. They just had to make their flight. The man looked at the beautiful young woman’s large eyes, picked up his phone and said, “Let them through.”
In Paris everything worked at peak efficiency. The entire segment of the movie was shot in one 20-hour day, the Opera House, the Seine, city streets, some done without permits. “The police are coming. We must go now to the next place,” was the cry from the first a.d. Paris interiors were filmed in California.
“We sucked every inch out of the city we could get,” says director Celentano. He was anxious to find one particular street where he had previously stayed with his wife. They scouted all day for that street and were just about to give up when they stumbled on it. It was rue du Moscou-Moscow Street.
About the filmmakers….Writer/director Jeff Celentano, a former actor, had his first feature produced by his own company, “Under the Hula Moon,” premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. This is the second film he has directed in Russia, the first being “Moscow Heat.” Executive producer/writer Kenneth Eade, co-founder of Imperia Entertainment, Inc. started out producing a Russian television series in which Agata Gotova interviewed Hollywood stars on the red carpet, followed by an interview show, “Autograph.” Producer Jefferson Richard is a true pioneer of the independent film movement and has produced some 40 films, starting in 1974, including “3,000 Miles to Graceland” and “Get Carter,” (line producer).
Cinematographer Emmanuel Vouniozos has also filmed “Order of Redemption” and “The Bridge.” Composer Igor Nikolaev, who composed the original theme, is a legendary pop star in Russia, with a classical music education. Pinar Toprak, who scored the music for a 75-piece orchestra, is a protégée of the great Hans Zimmer. One of the writers was Larry Gross, whose credits include “48 Hours,” “Another 48 Hours,” “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” and “Prozac Nation.”
About the cast… Rade Serbedzija is a true veteran of the screen, with more than 100 films in his resume. He is equally at home in his native Croatia and in the States, where he gained international fame for his many supporting roles in Hollywood films of the 1990s. British-born Steven Brand is another one of those British actors who manages to slip into an American accent with easy familiarity. His work has been mainly in television, with such series as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Navy NCIS.” Agata Gotova is a star in her native Russia, ironically because of her television show interviewing Hollywood stars. But she first made her name as a child singer and dancer in the USSR’s version of the Mickey Mouse Club. Faye Dunaway is a Hollywood icon, still working hard after more than 40 years. She came to fame starring opposite Warren Beatty in “Bonnie and Clyde.”