The main intrigue of the film "Hearts of Three": Where did the most mysterious Soviet actress Piret Myangel disappear?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

One of the most popular films of the early 1990s. became an exciting adventure melodrama "Hearts of Three", filmed according to the only script by Jack London, written for Hollywood. This was the last Soviet film - they began filming it back in the USSR, and finished after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the most important offscreen secret was the fate of the actress, who performed her only role in the movie in this film - Akatava, Toy, Who Is Dreaming. After filming, she disappeared without a trace …

For some reason, Hollywood gave up the idea of making a film based on the work of Jack London, and "Hearts of Three" was filmed only 75 years later, at the film studio. Dovzhenko. The last Soviet film began to be filmed with money from the State Film Agency. The film crew went on a film expedition to India, and upon their return they were left without state funding - the USSR no longer existed. The director had to look for additional funds to complete the filming and take out a bank loan.

Director Vladimir Popkov for a long time did not receive permission to shoot, and after he achieved it, he could not decide on the choice of actors for the main roles. In the novel, Francis and Henry Morgan were twin brothers, and the director initially offered both roles to Oleg Menshikov. He refused, and another option was found: someone advised Popkov to engage in the filming of two of the most popular young actors at that time - Sergei Zhigunov and Vladimir Shevelkov, who after the "Midshipmen" became real stars. In addition, both the one and the other had no interest in dexterity, strength, masculinity and charisma, without which these images would simply not have taken place.

During the filming, Vladimir Shevelkov decided to leave the cinema and put a bright end to his acting career with his last role. After that, he left for his native Petersburg and returned to the set only 12 years later - already as a director.

About 80 girls auditioned for the role of Leoncia Solano. Among the applicants were Alika Smekhova, Olga Drozdova and Irina Bezrukova (then Livanova). As a result, Alena Khmelnitskaya, a 2nd year student at the Moscow Art Theater School, was approved. This role became for her a successful career start and a pass to the world of big cinema.

However, the biggest mystery of this film was the actress who played the role of Akatava. Vladimir Popkov set the second director, Olga Alekseeva, the task of finding a girl with a Martian appearance. This was found in the theater school in Tallinn. An Estonian woman with an exotic name, Piret Mängel, was remembered by the entire film crew. She was Martian not only in appearance, but also in her habits. Alena Khmelnitskaya recalled: "". She spoke Russian so badly that her heroine had to be dubbed by another actress - instead of Piret Mängel, Anna Kamenkova gave her voice to Akatava.

Writer and journalist P. Aleshkovsky told: "".

Nobody knew anything about her then, and still little is known about her fate. Armenian actor Rafael Kotanjian, who played the main villain Alvarez Torres in the film, told how he once suggested that the Estonian woman could be a relative of the famous doctor of Nazi Germany, Joseph Mengele, nicknamed "The Angel of Death from Auschwitz" - their names were in tune with the actress. And Piret answered: "". It remains only to guess whether there was some truth in this joke.

She no longer acted in films. It was rumored that Piret Mängel had married an Italian aristocrat and left for his homeland. She was said to have studied at the Cinematography Center in Milan for practical courses in film and video production, worked as a model, and then in the architectural council of Venice. However, no one managed to find the mysterious actress.

One of the episodic roles in this film was played by the hereditary noblewoman Maria Kapnist, whose fate could become the basis for another action-packed film: How, having gone through the horrors of the camps and repressions, Countess Kapnist retained her faith in people.