Last Knight (film)


The Last Knight, also known as The Last Warrior is a 2017 Russian fantasy comedy film directed by Dmitriy Dyachenko. The story develops around Baba Yaga and Koschei, both villains in traditional Russian fairy tales. The film was produced by American film companies The Walt Disney Company CIS with Russian film companies Yellow, Black and White and Kinoslovo. The film stars Viktor Khorinyak, Mila Sivatskaya, Elena Yakovleva, Ekaterina Vilkova, Konstantin Lavronenko and Yevgeny Dyatlov.
It was scheduled to have a wide release on October 26, 2017. As of November 26, 2017, the film became the highest-grossing local-language release of all time in Russia, surpassing Stalingrad with 1.68 billion rubles and topping out at $30.5 million. In Russia, the film holds the 12th place biggest box-office audiences. This was Disney Russia's second film produced specifically for the Russian market, with the first being The Book of Masters.

Plot

The film opens with sorceress Varvara, princess of the fantasy world Belogorye, hunting down who she claims to be the last Bogatyr in the world. She petrifies him and throws him into the sea, where hundreds of other victims rest.
Ivan Naydenov is a young man living in modern Moscow, an orphan who managed to make his way in life by being a con artist: he masquerades as a "white mage", starring in rigged psychic contest shows and performing "rites" for clients. He starts having doubts about his selfish life choices, however, when asked to help a boy in a coma to wake up, which he obviously cannot do.
One day, during a faulty escape from a client's husband, he miraculously ends up in Belogorye. This parallel world is inhabited by the characters of Russian fairy tales and magic is commonplace. Leshy appears to have dragged Ivan there, claiming that Ivan is the lost son of Ilya Muromets himself, hidden on Earth years ago. Ivan is then immediately captured by Varvara's warriors and brought before prince Dobrynya Nikitich.
Dobrynya seems friendly at first, but Varvara soon throws Ivan into dungeon behind her husband's back. There, Ivan meets disembodied Koschei, who tells him that the only way to get back to Earth is by using the magical Sword Kladenets. He himself used it to achieve immortality, but Bogatyrs overthrew and imprisoned him thirty years prior. Since the forces of good have won, first most of the magical creatures were imprisoned or killed, and then Bogatyrs themselves. Provided Ivan is truly the son of Ilya, he can uncover the Sword and use it to bring the magical creatures back their power, and to return home.
Baba Yaga is soon captured and thrown into the same dungeon, but it proves to be a trick: she brought along Vasilisa the Wise in frog form, who easily releases the prisoners. Despite Ivan being more of nuisance than any help, the three decide to take him with themselves and find the Sword together. Escaping the dungeon, they also enlist Vodyanoy the Merman, attracted to Baba Yaga. Koschei tells Ivan that Vasilisa helps them because her entire village was turned into frogs by jealous Varvara after she caught the eye of Dobrynya. Despite bonding with Vasilisa over the loss of their parents, Ivan still decides that he wishes to get home and not to stay with her.
Varvara eventually captures the heroes, turns Vodyanoy into stone and forces Ivan to get the Sword for her, lest his friends are killed. Ivan does recover the Sword and overpowers his foes with it, but Koshei turns out to be in league with Varvara. Moreover, Dobrynya himself is revealed to be the mastermind of the whole scheme, planning to use the Sword to get the same kind of immortality as Koschei. Reasoning that he no longer needs his help, Dobrynya betrays Koschei, and Ivan uses the Sword to escape to Earth.
Back in Moscow, he quickly realizes that he cannot abandon his beloved Vasilisa in trouble, and decides to get back. Upon finding Leshy, he returns to Belogorye, sets free Zmey Gorynych and uses a modern handgun to fight his way to Dobrynya. However, the latter has already completed the ritual and is now immortal, about to execute Vasilisa and Baba Yaga. Using Gorynych as distraction and cover, Ivan challenges Dobrynya to a fair duel, hoping to give his companions time to destroy the magical stone and therefore undo the Immortals' invulnerability. During the fight, Dobrynya reveals that it was his envy of Ilya that led to betrayal of bogatyrs.
Koschei eventually gets his hands on the magical stone, and, touched by the selfless heroism of his companions, decides to shatter it, killing himself and Dobrynya. Varvara escapes Belogorye in horror, and her petrified victims come back to life, Ilya among them, reunited with his son now. Ivan decides to stay in Belogorye rather than return to the life of a fake "mage", marrying Vasilisa. The only thing he comes back into his world for is to use the real magic to help the comatose boy from the beginning of the film.
The film ends with Varvara on Earth, meeting her mother. It is revealed that the two planned to enthrall Dobrynya and gain dominion over Belogorye, but with that plan failed, will now have to make a different move.

Cast

The film was dubbed into English with the title The Last Warrior at the UK studio Pinewood Studio in 2017.

Development

In May 2016, production began in Moscow and other locations. The premier was set for October 19, 2017, on the eve of school holidays with potential for being released in the IMAX format. The production companies applied to the Cinema Foundation for state support. Filming took place in Moscow and near Sochi. As of November 26, 2017, the film became the highest-grossing local-language release of all time in Russia, surpassing Stalingrad with 1.68 billion rubles

Casting

The main character of the film, Ivan Naydenov, performed by Viktor Khorinyak, was conceived as a more serious hero, although there was also something left of the character of Kostya Anisimov from the TV series Kitchen, for example, the ability to quickly find a way out of a difficult situation.

Filming

took place in Moscow and near Sochi, and basically all the scenes were shot in real scenery, and not on a chroma key. Most of the filming took place in the Republic of Abkhazia. Abkhazian production company Alexandra Basariya Abkhaz-Production LLC hospitably received the film crew and beloved Russian actors. The shooting took place in such cities and areas as: the road to Lake Ritsa, Auadhara Nature Reserve, Alpine Meadows, the village of Otap cave in Ochamchyrsky District, the town of Pitsunda, Gagra and Gudauta.

Post-production

According to the director, a watermark created by computer-generated imagery.

Release

The film is scheduled to be released in the Russian Federation on October 29, 2017 by Walt Disney Studios Sony Pictures Releasing. The television premiere took place on January 1, 2018 on the Russia-1 TV channel.

Reception

Budget

The exact budget for the movie is unknown but it's estimated to be somewhere between $6 and $8 million. In 2017 production company Yellow, Black and White revealed that the overall production and promotion budget was 370 million Russian Rubles, equally distributed between Disney and YBW. The film is partially sponsored by Russian government through Cinema Fund, which gave 100 million Russian Rubles to YBW, although half of that sum was returned to state-owned Cinema Fund thanks to the movie's commercial success.

Box office

The Last Knight in less than two weeks of rental broke the bar of 1 billion rubles and became the highest-grossing domestic film of 2017, according to the Unified Automated Information System . In total, The Last Knight collected more than 1.7 billion rubles at the box office, having recovered its budget in 11 days.
The reason for success is found both in a positive word of mouth, and in the active support of distributors.

Critical response

Critics' opinions about the film were divided, he received conflicting ratings - but mostly average, neutral. According to the "Criticism" aggregator, The Last Knight received an average rating of 67/100 in the press. Igromania magazine stated that the film is straightforward and that the reason why the villains of fairy tales, such as Koschey or Baba Yaga, went over to the good side, was not explained in the film. But he praised the film for good humor. Magazine "Mir Fantastiki" gave the film six out of ten stars and stated that the film could not escape the cliche with the main character, which could be ridiculed in Shrek fifteen years ago, because of which the film suffers from a lack of originality, and also stated that the reason why the villains save the world of fairy tales was not disclosed in the film. However, the magazine also praised the film for humor.
According to the results of a survey organized by the Kinopoisk website on the VKontakte social network, users called The Last Knight the best Russian film of 2017.

Sequels

The Russian Disney office announced a sequel to the film in February 2018 with Yellow, Black and White co-production and Vitaliy Shlyappo leading the writers. The film will be called The Last Knight: Root of Evil and will be released on December 24 in 2020. A further sequel is scheduled for 2021.