Another ending and refusal to shoot nude: what remained behind the scenes of the filming of the "White Sun of the Desert"

This film has long been a classic of Soviet cinema, although its shooting was accompanied by great difficulties, the director was accused of incompetence, and the audience might not have seen their favorite characters on the screens at all. Few people know that the "White Sun of the Desert" originally had not only a different name, but also a different ending, and the cut episodes would be enough for two series.

Source: kulturologia.ru

In the 1960s, in the wake of the popularity of the "Elusive Avengers", interest in adventure cinema increased, and at the management level it was decided to shoot "easterns" with historical and revolutionary content as opposed to foreign "westerns". Andrei Konchalovsky and Friedrich Gorenstein were involved in working on the script of a new film with the working title "Basmachi" (or "Desert"). The plot is based on a story told by a participant in the Civil War, about how in Central Asia the Basmachi, fleeing from the Red Army, abandoned their harems in the desert. So another name of the film was born — "Save the harem".

Konchalovsky soon left the project for the filming of another film. Yuri Chulyukin and Andrei Tarkovsky also refused to work. Vladimir Motyl planned to shoot a picture about the Decembrists, but, having received guarantees of complete freedom of action on the set, he agreed to take up work on the proposed project about the "Basmachi". The name "Save the Harem" seemed ambiguous to the Soviet cinematographic leadership, so another option was approved — "The White Sun of the Desert".

Georgy Yumatov was invited to play the role of the Red Army soldier Sukhov, but at that time he already had serious problems with alcohol, and the director's fears that he might disrupt the shooting were not unfounded. A week after the start of filming, he got into a drunken brawl and came to the set covered in bruises. Then the director decided to shoot the actor whose candidacy was rejected at the audition — Anatoly Kuznetsov.

Non-professional actors were also involved in the filming. Only three of Abdullah's nine wives are actresses, the rest were far from the world of cinema. The women endured the heat hard, and in those scenes where they did not need to reveal their faces, they were duplicated by young soldiers dressed in a burqa.

Filming took place in Dagestan and Turkmenistan. Discipline in the creative group was lame — actors often disappeared in local restaurants and participated in drunken brawls. The episode where Vereshchagin's face bleeds during a fight on a longboat is completely natural. The day before, in a fight with local hooligans, Luspekayev had his eyebrow cut.

During the business trip, they did not have time to shoot all the planned material. As a result, the commission rejected the director's work and accused him of professional unfitness, and the film was put "on the shelf" for 4 months. But since the Ministry of Finance refused to write off the money spent on the shooting, it was decided to still give Motyl the opportunity to complete work on the film.

The commission's conclusion on making changes to the footage

In order for the film to be released, the director had to reshoot several scenes, and cut out some finished episodes. So, initially the ending was completely different: Vereshchagin's wife goes crazy with grief, and Abdullah's wives rush to their dead husband in despair and sob over the body. Sukhov expected to see the joy of salvation on their faces, but they ran past him and began to wail over their husband, as Oriental women should. But such a finale angered the management of Mosfilm.

Katerina Matveevna was played by a non—professional actress - editor of the Ostankino studio Galina Luchai

Many shots were not included in the picture. So, an episode was cut when Abdullah set fire to the tank where his wives were hiding. Women, fleeing from the fire, had to take off their clothes and get out. But they all flatly refused to be filmed naked. After much persuasion, they agreed, setting a condition: there should be no men on the set. But there was no way to get rid of the operators and illuminators, so only the carpenter had to be driven away. By hook or by crook, the episode was removed, but the commission demanded that it be removed. I also had to "cut out the thighs" of Katerina Matveyevna when she crossed the stream with her skirt up, as this was regarded as pornography. The scenes in which Vereshchagin was drunk were also deleted — the hero could not be an alcoholic.

Many scenes with Abdullah's wives were cut from the film. The art critic and translator Svetlana Slivinskaya, who played the role of Saida, says: "At first, an adventure picture called "Save the Harem" was planned, where Abdullah and his wives were the main ones. But the material was cut, the picture was renamed, the main thing was not a harem, but a story about how the revolution took place in Asian countries. I remember they rejected the scene, as in one of the dreams Sukhov throws me from a longboat to the song "Because of the island on the Strezhen". I had to submissively go under the water. It's good that the divers pulled me out in time! And then the scene was ordered to be cut out as cruel."

Svetlana Slivinskaya as Saida

A frame not included in the film: Sukhov's dream about how he, remembering his wife, throws women from the harem into the water

But even after these changes, the material did not satisfy the commission, and Motyl had to make about 30 more edits. The final version was significantly different from the original, but the director of Mosfilm was not satisfied with the result and did not sign the acceptance certificate. The audience probably would never have seen one of the best Soviet films if they had not shown Leonid Brezhnev The White Sun of the Desert at a closed screening one day. He was so delighted with what he saw that the picture was released. In the first year, the film was watched by 35 million viewers, and so far it has not lost its popularity.