"In June 1941, when I was 19, I was playing the part of Andrei in "Taras Bulba" being filmed by Dovzhenko. Studio representatives had come to our Rostov Theater School back in March. I had gone through auditions, and literally a week later received a telegram: "Please come to the Ukrfilm Studio for screen tests for the part of Andrei in the 'Taras Bulba' motion picture. Aleksandr Dovzhenko." Such an offer! It was an event for the entire school: Dovzhenko! The director who had filmed "Shchors", "Poem Earth", "Aerograd", the one who was the most leading director of them all. And suddenly he invited some Dupak.
I flew in. They met me, set me up at the Continental Hotel in a luxurious room with a bath. Fantastic! Only in the movies had I seen that people could live like that. And so: "Rest for now, a car will come for you in the morning." The car came at noon, they took the Brest-Litovsk Highway to bring me to the studio. We came to the studio, they took me to a man who was working at a vegetable plot, dressed in a shirt, pants, and sandals: "Aleksandr Petrovich, here's Dupak arrived from Rostov." He looked at me, stretched out his hand: "Dovzhenko." "Dupak." "Have you read 'Taras Bulba'?" "Yes." "What is it about?" "Well…" "Did you notice how when Cossacks died, they would in some cases curse the enemy, and in others praise their brotherhood?" In short, he started telling me how he was going to make a film about friendship, patriotism, about real people who loved life. I was stunned! Dovzhenko was discussing such things with me! We walked around for about an hour. Then -- screen tests, and they drove me back to the hotel. That's how the filming started for me.
We didn't work on Saturday and Sunday. They told us that we would have to watch some foreign film. We were supposed to come to the studio on Sunday at 12. I was reading and re-reading something, went to bed late, and woke up from the sounds of gunfire. I walked out onto the balcony, and my neighbor also came out. "What is it?" -- "Probably exercises of the Kiev Military District", and just as he said that -- suddenly, maybe 100 meters away, an airplane with a swastika turned around and flew to bomb a bridge across the Dnieper. I saw that for the first time. It was around 5 AM. The heat was terrible, about 30 degrees. Windows were open. The neighbor went white -- it didn't look like exercises. We went downstairs. No one knew anything. I walked out to a streetcar stop. Suddenly there was another air raid. They dropped a bomb on the Jewish Market, on the spot where there is a circus now. That's when I saw the first casualties. I came to the studio. We listened to Molotov's speech. The picture became clear. We held a meeting. Aleksandr Petrovich made a speech and said that instead of the planned year and a half for the film, we wood shoot it in half a year, and then we would beat the enemy on his own territory. Such was the mood! But literally the next day, when we came to film, there was no crowd scene in which the soldiers had been supposed to participate. That's when we realized -- sorry, this would be serious and for long. Bombings continued during those days, streams of refugees from the Ukraine poured in. On the second or third day of the war, they put additional beds in my room, tried to create living space for the refugees. Started digging bomb shelters at the studio. We were going to start shooting for several more days, but then people's militia units started being created. Besides me, Aleksandr Petrovich, Andreev, and Oleinikov joined. They sent us to Novograd-Volynskii. When we got there, I didn't see any of them, only the workers and fitters. Our crew formed up: "Anyone with higher education -- 2 steps forward, secondary education -- one step forward." I didn't think I had higher education. I took one step, then hesitated, and stepped a little further. "Ri-i-ight face!" -- and we were led to the barracks. Then they started sorting us out -- where to send us for training. They asked me if I could ride a horse. I said "yes", and they put me into a cavalry school…"
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Amicalement
Armand
's commission from one of our own.
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