"MK": Grymov Has Started a Storm In a Desert Our shooting team was arrested for warms import to Egypt.
A famous Russian film director decided to continue a doctor theme that he had started to develop in his previous serial Kukotzkiy Kazoos. Recently he has finished the shooting of his new Russian-American-Arab movie project The Strangers. The scenery for the action was found in Morocco and Egypt. Plus several shooting days the makers of the Strangers have spent in America. The leading roles in the movie were played by the American actors.
The action of the film is taking place in a zone of international conflict in our days. Five doctors volunteers from some American charity mission are coming to this place. They have rather easy task to do examination and vaccination of children. The events that will happen to this solidary team of medics which consists of experienced Miss Stone, two bosom friends Michael and Bill, group leader Tom and his wife Jane will turn their understanding of themselves and of the whole world upside down. This film also is about a collision of alien cultures and a conflict between centuries-old traditions and modern moral. The leading roles in the movie The Strangers are played by Mark Adam, Neil Patrick Stewart, Jeff Grace, Scarlett McAlister and Kathleen Gaty. McAlister has played with Richard Geer (Doctor T and His Women) and Chuk Norris (Devil Adobe), and Gaty was a partner of George Cloony at soup opera Emergency site. To work with American actors is just an entire pleasure according to Grymov's words. There were some misunderstandings of course.
-Mark Adam, Play According to Stranger's Rules movie star- recalls Yuri smiling - was absolutely for a long time that I was drinking vodka all the time. It was very hot, and was constantly carrying a plastic bottle with mineral water. It didn't even come to Mark's mind that there could be something different from vodka there. It was also amazing for the Americans that the Russian were able to make a professional movie of that quality and reveal such serious world problems. By the way they were paid not so much for their job. The problem that is aroused in the Strangers is close to them as well.
Among domestic popular actors there is Victor Bichkov, Alexey Poluyan (who has become famous after his role of maniac militiaman in Cargo 200 film).
For Grymov project there was built a real Arab village in the desert, where several hundreds people for crowd scene were disposed. There were two hundred fifty children only. But for all that, the film director cast the children for crowd scene very thoroughly, he needed real rural types and not Europeanized little Arabs. The shooting process became not an easy test. As a result of anti-sanitary conditions some shooting group members had got louses and itch-mites. And when Grymov made an attempt to bring to Egypt infantry mines (their plaster casts, in fact) and several Kalashnikov guns he was arrested.
-The arms as other properties for the film, - Grymov continues to recall - were the expedition's whole luggage. As I was the film co-producer, I'd decided to take responsibility for the luggage contents. Not only all arsenal was arrested but our two cameras as well. And I was detained for inquiry as a formal owner of the luggage. Thanks to our Russian counsel assistance the cameras were returned to us, but it was much more difficult with the weapons… The Strangers premiere is planned for the future spring.
