March of Physics: "Striking Ray" — the secret history of the Soviet laser
The spy detective story "Striking Ray" takes you back to the 1970s, when Soviet and American intelligence services fought for the secrets of scientists who changed the course of history. The idea of creating a "laser shield" capable of shooting down enemy missiles was one of the most advanced and classified fields of science. How it really happened and how a little-known episode of the Cold War is presented in the series, Izvestia tells. On November 3, there will be a big premiere on REN TV.
A double agent at gunpoint
The plot of the spy detective series "Striking Ray" is based on the story of the rivalry between the military intelligence services of the USSR and the USA for decades. At the center of the confrontation is a secret laboratory developing lasers for missile defense. Everything that the team is working on is under the close attention of the State Security Committee.
A shot from the series "Striking Ray"
Evgeny Kharitonov's character, who plays the head of the laboratory, has a real prototype. This is the world-famous scientist Nikolai Basov, who is called the founder of quantum electronics. In 1964, Basov won the Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded for the creation of emitters and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle.
—During the Cold War, the struggle of counterintelligence was at its peak, especially in the field of scientific discoveries and developments for the military-industrial complex," says director Alexei Muradov. — It was important to be the first. And also to resist attempts to steal ideas, introduce agents, influence scientists, and lure them away. The series deals with the use of a laser for the purposes of the military-industrial complex.
The plot of the story is famously twisted. At the center of serious scientific discoveries is Kim Nikanorov, a talented physicist in the past, and now a successful speculator. He was played by Ivan Kolesnikov in the film.
— In fact, Kim is very smart, he worked in the laboratory, helped create the very ray in question, but he was turned away from there, and he started working on currency, — Ivan Kolesnikov told Izvestia. — Now he's sitting in the Rossiya Hotel, looking for clients, haggling. He seems to be doing well.
A shot from the series "Striking Ray"
He is a fashionista, wears clothes that cannot be obtained in the Soviet Union, and describes his hero Kolesnikov. Bell-bottom jeans, blazers, colorful shirts with large collars. There are beautiful girls around. It would seem that everything in life has succeeded.
But then the special services took over Kim and set a condition: he would work for intelligence, because there was information that they wanted to steal new developments from Basov's laboratory. Scientists in the USA and Germany have not yet developed such a beam, so they are hunting for ours. And Kim has to find the one who's trying to do it. So he turns out to be a recruited agent.
Kim is under pressure from different sides all the time. He is under the close supervision of the KGB and the CIA. But he grew up in an orphanage, so he got used to fighting and not trusting anyone. He sees a traitor in everyone, which is not bad for a real agent, but not for a man in love.
— In our spy detective story, the human drama is at the center of events, the main character finds himself in a situation where he is forced to become a double agent, — says Alexey Muradov. — This is a story about a difficult choice.
A shot from the series "Striking Ray"
Kim's friend Vera is played by Marina Petrenko. Her character is a young scientist working in Basov's laboratory. She is obsessed with her ideas, ready to work for days.
"The costume designer and I carefully worked out Vera's style,— recalls Marina Petrenko. — You won't see women with gray faces in the frame — we have bright, charismatic characters who are interesting both externally and internally. I am sure that the audience will love this project for the way we depicted the special atmosphere of the time and the people who lived and worked back then. This is a story created with deep understanding and love for that era.
Filming of the series took place in Moscow and the noble estates of Vinogradovo and Sukhanovo near Moscow, as well as in the House Museum of the Morozov family.
"Don't play the spy"
Daria Moroz plays a CIA agent, an American woman with Russian roots. She uses the pseudonym Leonardo to work. Making Daria a spy was, among other things, a serious task for makeup and costume designers. As a result, Daria on the set resembles either Barbara Brylska or Mireille Mathieu.
"She's a professional, a chameleon who changes faces and wigs all the time,— Daria Moroz smiles. — At the Pentagon, my character wears formal suits without hiding behind makeup. But coming to the USSR, it changes. She looks a little more fashionable than most people. Sometimes, in order to blend in with the crowd, he disguises himself as a "Soviet grandmother": a coat, a handkerchief.
A shot from the series "Striking Ray"
Daria Moroz's character is one of the recruiters. She speaks different languages perfectly. But, according to the actress, playing in English became the biggest challenge for her.
— The director kept telling me, "Don't play a spy." First of all, this is a story about people," Daria Moroz admitted. — The script has such interesting human lines that it becomes clear what the characters want to achieve in the end. I was attracted to the excitement with which the story is told, and I think the audience will be captivated by it too.
If the men in the frame are fighting, chasing, shooting, then the CIA agent has all the action in the dialogues. Her task is to be convincing and win the other person over to her side. Jokes, irony, manipulation, and business proposals are used.
Like an action movie with Jackie Chan
Stunt director Amur Gamaev was responsible for the stunts and combat scenes in the series. On his set, everything should always be planned and without fuss. Actors are taken care of on such shoots. They are allowed only non-dangerous stunts, the rest of the work is done by stunt doubles. Meanwhile, Ivan Kolesnikov's hero fights a lot in the frame with whatever comes to hand. He even uses a scalpel.
"It's fun, you feel like you did when you were a kid in the yard, when you watched some action movie with Jackie Chan, and now you're fighting the same way," laughs Ivan Kolesnikov, who plays Kim.
A shot from the series "Striking Ray"
Kim's antagonist is KGB Colonel Valentin Smagin. He is played by Kirill Grebenshchikov.
— According to their duty, state security officers should be inconspicuous, these are people with unremarkable appearance, with erased voices, whose character is very difficult to judge, — says Kirill Grebenshchikov. — But actors, by virtue of their profession, must endow the characters with special features, make the character more prominent, so that it is interesting to look at it. At the same time, without violating the character's professional credibility. The most important thing is to reward the hero with inconsistency, to give him both pros and cons. So that it is not flat and unambiguous.
The script of the series is written in the style of the best Soviet films about intelligence officers. Fans of the hit "TASS is authorized to declare" will like it.
— Alexey Muradov is a demanding director, it's not easy with him, he doesn't miss anything and is very attentive to the little things, — says Kirill Grebenshchikov. — His attitude: forget what you can do and always be alive. My hero is a character with a surprise. It has evil and good, black and white. That's why I liked him. It's always interesting to play a man in whom two beginnings are fighting.: how he faces the choice and how he makes it, what he relies on and what happens to him at the moment of the decision.
A shot from the series "Striking Ray"
There is one positive character in the film, Agent Baum. As actor Pavel Trubiner says, this man has everything with him: he is collected, confident, inconspicuous, as befits people of this profession. And most importantly, he is devoted to his Homeland.
"There was a galaxy of great intelligence officers in the USSR who worked abroad and were not disclosed,— Pavel Trubiner clarifies. — Many of them are long-lived. This is unique because the profession requires serious psychological investment. Our series tells about a time that was not so long ago. Therefore, the audience is nostalgic for the USSR. And in order to better immerse myself in the era, I even bought myself a 1974 Casio watch, and I'm shooting in it.
The spy retrodetective "Smashing Ray" will be shown on REN TV on November 3 starting at 8:45 a.m. Viewers will see all eight episodes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
