Behind the scenes of the film "Nastya": Where did one of the most beautiful and mysterious actresses of the 1990s disappear?

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

February 10 marks 102 years since the birth of the famous playwright and screenwriter Alexander Volodin. For 20 years he has not been among the living, but the films created according to his scripts still remain movie hits: "They Call, Open the Door", "Autumn Marathon", "Do not part with your loved ones", etc. His last work was the melodrama "Nastya ". This film appeared in the early 1990s. and became a real breath of fresh air for the viewers tired of the "chernukha" in life and on the screens. The main character looked like a princess from a fairy tale, and after giving a dream to millions, after that she mysteriously disappeared forever …

The script for "Nastya" was the last film work by Alexander Volodin, but not his first work on this topic. The fact is that back in 1967 the film "An Incident That No One Noticed" was shot based on the novel of the same name by Volodin, where the author and screenwriter himself also acted as a director. Unfortunately, for him this experience was the first and the last: a fairy tale-parable about a modest saleswoman from a grocery store, dreaming of turning from an inconspicuous Cinderella into a beautiful princess, did not like the film management, and in the future Volodin was not allowed to shoot a movie as a director.

And now, 25 years later, director Georgy Danelia invited Alexander Volodin to return to the same work and shoot a second film adaptation. They revised the script together, with the help of Alexander Adabashyan. The outline of the plot was left the same, only the girl was moved from the grocery store to the stationery store of the early 1990s.

It is interesting that Georgy Danelia did not see the first film adaptation at that time, and the film "Nastya" turned out, in fact, not a remake, but a new picture based on the same work. At the same time, all events and ideas remained unchanged: a modest girl dreams of beauty and love, once she helped an unfamiliar old woman on the street, and she promised to fulfill her two cherished desires. Nastya's first desire was beauty, but her transformation did not bring her happiness. And only after she makes a second wish - to become the same as before, real love comes into her life.

The main character before her transformation was played by the 22-year-old aspiring actress Polina Kutepova. 1993, when the film "Nastya" was being filmed, was a turning point for her: at the same time she graduated from GITIS (RATI) and was accepted into the troupe of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop theater. She began acting in films with her twin sister Ksenia as a child, but in Nastya she played her first major role, after which other filmmakers drew attention to her.

It was with "Nastya" that Polina Kutepova began her triumphant career in cinema. Even in the crisis 1990s. she was offered one major role after another, and in the early 2000s. she has become one of the most famous and sought-after actresses. In the new century, the actress was remembered by the audience for her main roles in the detective series "Pelagia and the White Bulldog" and in the films "Indie", "My Husband is a Genius" and "Cadenzas". At the moment, the 49-year-old actress has about 40 works in her filmography. But her colleague, who played Nastya after a wonderful transformation, did not have an acting fate.

After in 1994the film "Nastya" was released, the opinions of film critics and viewers were divided: someone admired the beauty of an unknown actress who played the main character after the transformation, and someone applauded the acting skills of Polina Kutepova, who, not having the same bright appearance as her colleague, on the screens, overshadowed her thanks to her talent and brilliant acting. All these discussions confirmed only one thing: Georgy Danelia was not mistaken with the choice of young actresses for the main roles - their inclusion in the characters was one hundred percent. And if the "discoverer" of Polina Kutepova's talent, who shaped her as a person and as an actress, was still Pyotr Fomenko, then Irina Markova's star was undoubtedly lit by Georgy Danelia, although he was also called Kutepova's "godfather" in the cinema.

The film "Nastya" was not the first in her film career - it became the second and last. Irina Markova was not a professional actress. She was born in Minsk, and got on the set thanks to a fluke after her move to Moscow. When director Viktor Volkov in the early 1990s. conceived to shoot the melodrama "Show Boy", he decided that he would star in the main roles of non-professional actors who had never appeared on the screens before. The assistant directors accidentally saw 18-year-old Irina Markova, immediately drew attention to her bright beauty and offered to come to audition. So she got her debut film role.

The heartbreaking story about the tragic love of a young soloist of a pop group and an equally young, but wise experience, "priestess of love", was blown to smithereens by critics. So, Elena Stishova in "The Art of Cinema" wrote: "".

Nevertheless, Irina Markova, who has no acting education and experience in filming, who was called a “mediocre victim of a beauty contest,” from the very first appearance on the screens, charmed millions of viewers, who, looking at her, forgot about the level of acting. Georgy Danelia was also not worried about this fact and invited the debutante to one of the main roles in his film "Nastya". He needed just such a heroine - a living embodiment of an unattainable dream, fragile, airy, beautiful and mysterious.

And although the acting skills of Irina Markova after the release of the film on the screens were again not highly appreciated, in 1994 "Nastya" received the prestigious film award "Nika", and they started talking about both actresses. This film was included in the collection of the best works of the director, who presented the audience in difficult times with a bright kind fairy tale.

After such an unconditional success, Markova could have received an acting education and continued her film career, but she did not have such goals. And if there were, then they lost their meaning for her after priorities shifted in her life. She married a businessman, gave birth to two twin daughters and devoted herself to the family. All that is known about her later life is that she lives in Moscow.

Since then, Irina Markova led a non-public lifestyle, did not give interviews, did not appear in public. No matter how many journalists and fans tried to find her, all they managed to find were just a few photos from social networks. According to them, one can judge that one of the most beautiful girls of the early 1990s. at the age of 47, she remains the same bright and charming beauty.

The film "Nastya" was one of the first notable films and the actor Valery Nikolaev, who at the end of the 1990s. became one of the most popular artists, and then disappeared from the screens: "Bourgeois birthday" 20 years later.