Behind the scenes of the film "The Fate of a Man": Why Sholokhov doubted Bondarchuk, and who Vanyusha became when he grew up

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

The drama by Sergei Bondarchuk based on the story of the same name by Mikhail Sholokhov is today called one of the best Soviet films about the war. And when in the late 1950s. the debutant director announced his intention to shoot this film, this idea raised doubts both among the management of "Mosfilm" and among the writer himself. Why Sholokhov did not believe that Bondarchuk would cope with both directing and playing the main role, and how the fate of the young actor who played the street child Vanyusha developed - further in the review.

Mikhail Sholokhov's story "The Fate of a Man" was published in the newspaper "Pravda" in late 1956 - early 1957. As soon as Sergey Bondarchuk read it, he was eager to make a film based on this work. He told: "".

But with the implementation of this plan, a lot of difficulties arose. The fact is that by that time Sergei Bondarchuk was already a sought-after and popular actor, known for his leading roles in the films "Young Guard", "Taras Shevchenko", "Othello", "Jumpers", but he still had no directing experience - this film was supposed to be his debut. Sholokhov doubted that the 36-year-old debutant director would cope with this task, and the Mosfilm management believed that there would be enough material only for a short film. But Bondarchuk did not wait for a decision with the production and got down to work. On the advice of the writer, he visited his homeland - in the village of Veshenskaya in the Rostov region. Meanwhile, Sholokhov's editor Yuri Lukin and the writer's literary secretary Fyodor Shakhmagonov began writing the script. At the end of 1957, their text was accepted by Mosfilm without any comments or corrections.

The writer's doubts were also caused by Bondarchuk's intention to play the main role - the front-line soldier Andrei Sokolov, who was in captivity. Bondarchuk said: "". Sergei Bondarchuk was so obsessed with this idea and so selflessly worked on the image that as a result the writer gave up and admitted that he was one hundred percent in the image. Later, this work was called one of the strongest and most accurate in Bondarchuk's filmography.

The risk was that it was quite difficult material for the debutant director, because he intended to break one of the taboo in Soviet cinema - the topic of captivity. Recognized master Mikhail Sholokhov could afford to make the protagonist of his work a former prisoner of war, who would have been unequivocally ranked among the enemies of the people a few years ago, but it was risky for a novice director to talk about what then in the cinema they preferred to be silent. In addition, his Andrei Sokolov, according to the film's operator Vladimir Monakhov, though “”.

If Bondarchuk was absolutely sure that he himself would play the main male role, then difficulties arose with the search for a young actor for the role of a homeless orphan Vanyushka, whom Andrei Sokolov decides to adopt. The director looked at more than 100 applicants among children, but could not find the desired type for a long time. Once, while screening a children's film at the House of Cinema, he ran into a charming five-year-old boy, Pavlik Boriskin. Bondarchuk talked to his father and invited him to bring his son to audition. According to another version, he had known his father for a long time - they studied at VGIK on parallel courses, and he himself suggested that he invite his son to audition. Be that as it may, Bondarchuk's directorial instinct did not disappoint - the boy coped with the tasks set brilliantly. Sholokhov also approved this choice.

Pavlik's own father was actor Vladimir Boriskin - under this name the young actor was mentioned in the credits. But his father drank heavily, which is why the family broke up - just at the moment when Pavlik was filming "The Fate of a Man." When the boy was 9 years old, he had a stepfather - director Yevgeny Polunin, who gave him his patronymic and surname and raised him like his own son. So Pavlik repeated the fate of his screen hero Vanyusha, who was also raised by his adoptive father.

At the time of filming, Bondarchuk, to some extent, really replaced his father - he treated the boy very reverently and attentively, took him everywhere with him, helped memorize the text of the role by ear, because Pavlik then did not even know how to read. And the director aroused such confidence in the child that the brightest scene of the film turned out to be very piercing and reliable - when Vanyusha throws himself on Sokolov's neck with a shout: ""

Years later Pavel Polunin recalled: "".

Over the next 7 years after the release of the film "The Fate of Man" Pavlik starred in 7 more films. Of course, he dreamed of an acting profession, but this dream was never destined to come true. After leaving school, he tried three times to enter VGIK, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Pavel Polunin changed several professions: he worked as a locksmith's apprentice, and as an engineer, and as a secretary in the regional committee of the Komsomol, and as a department head at a youth tourism bureau, and as a seller of auto parts, and as a taxi driver. Polunin never appeared in films again.

Polunin is philosophical about the way his fate developed. “”, - he says.

The film "The Fate of a Man" has become a real event for both Soviet and world cinema. In 1959 it was watched by more than 39 million viewers in the USSR. For this work, Sergei Bondarchuk received the Lenin Prize, the main prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, the Grand Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival, and a special prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The founder of Italian neorealism, Roberto Rossellini, said about this film: "".

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