July 6-13, 2007. First shooting days.
The first days of shooting can be compared to a litmus paper test. Particularly these days show how prepared you and your crew are for creating a film.

My shooting crew almost entirely consisted of young people whose average age was 25-26 years old. Not in the least since I couldn't find more mature and as it may seem at first sight more experienced specialists. Firstly, all those guys who worked hard in my film were quite enough experienced. Three-four films that were behind each of them were quite enough. Secondly, they all were fresh, enduring (that was very important for those conditions under which we were shooting), not tired of their profession and genuinely devoted to work. Once more I was convinced that hiring youth was not at all risky. It would be great to work with them in future projects but owing to colossal lack of staff existing in our cinematograph it is simply unreal to get the same team anew. But those are idle speculations for which there was no time during shooting.

The first day when I arrived at the shooting site I saw blazing cars torn by explosions; gigantic bulldozers trying to put away that pile of metal; fussing soldiers trying to block the flow of traffic and some impatient drivers who almost threw themselves under the wheels; donkeys and camels that herdsmen couldn't control; Arabs carrying victims of the act of terrorism to the local cemetery … In other words everything was ready for shooting. From all points including the number of used vehicles, quantity of people and assistants for the crowd that scene was the most complicated in the whole film. Of course I didn't want to start shooting of The Strangers exactly with it but due to the fact that local custom house had arrested our cameras and then for a very long time didn't want to return them back I had no choice - I tried to keep up at least my actors' schedule.

Just imagine that babel: 50 Russians of the shooting crew, 20 Russian actors, 5 American actors, 100 Arab assistants, 100 Arab actors of the crowd scene, 2 donkeys and 3 camels. All that happening under 35-degree heat. In such moments you start asking yourself why you have chosen the job of director instead of let's say writer. The same question haunts you the following day when you lie flat in a jeep's luggage section that races at the speed of 80 kilometers per hour leaping on the dunes. At the same time you are accomplishing at once several strategically important tasks: give instructions to actors, cameramen and lighting assistants; give orders to fireworkers blowing up mines on either side of the jeep; and try to catch hold of something not to be tossed up on the next dune jump and avoid the camera.

By the way the Americans couldn't believe we had shot the arrival of doctors to the scene of the terrorists' act and their break through the mine field in two days only. "In Hollywood we would have been shooting it minimum for a week" they said wonderingly. Generally, the American actors helped me very much in the course of shooting. In contrast to some of our performers who tried to become the center of everyone's attention during breaks in between shootings the American often became my helpers. Perhaps the point is that in the States an actor is first of all a professional and craftsman who knows his/her work and not just a talented person who can act. Some of us had an excellent opportunity to learn from them what is called "professional attitude to cinema". You know, guys who acted as Russian soldiers looked really exhausted for some objective reasons only by midday. But I asked them to look like that right from the morning as soon as we started to shoot.

We started cutting right away on the first shooting day and not when we returned to the hotel but directly on the shooting site. The thing is that any scene be it a part of a music video or a full-length film I start scrolling in my head before shooting and clearly see video sequence it consists of. Therefore right after that command "Stop!" I am ready to cut. We should thank the cutter of this project. He belongs to that rare category of people who momentarily grasp and feel the material. Sitting with a laptop under some light shed that frankly speaking was badly protecting from the heat, sand and soot the cutter put together pieces of some scene and showed me. It was very convenient and I immediately saw if I had enough shot material or not.

I remember before the shooting they tried to scare me with sluggishness of Arab assistants, but there was no problem with their speed, all of the assistants ran around quickly fulfilling my orders. Though sometimes they ran in the wrong direction and fulfilled not at all my orders. For example once instead of black jeeps of Arab terrorists they delivered to the shooting site brand new, clean de luxe jeeps right from some car dealer without a scratch. As a result that shooting day was disrupted since we were shooting in the desert where the nearest inhabited locality was two-hour drive away. The next day they delivered ideally matching models of jeeps with battered bodies covered in dust but … red colored. We spent the following two hours with cans of black paint and brushes in our hands repainting the cars.

Of course the scenes with participation of armed to the teeth terrorists attracted the local patrol. You could see in the shot material some spoiled takes where a police car approaching in the opposite direction turned on its siren, made a U-turn and rushed to chase us.

So passed the first week of shooting that brought only one serious disappointment and that was local meals delivered to our shooting site. I don't know why, maybe because of the heat or foodstuff, but it was impossible to eat it and we refused it. Some did it immediately and some a bit later after soon poisoning.

Next we went shooting to the Cairo film studio which area exceeds any studio in Hollywood. Before us were new discoveries and new surprises …