Nochnoy dozor (2004)

Director:

Timur Bekmambetov

Writers (WGA):

Timur Bekmambetov (screenplay) and
Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

8 July 2004 (Belarus)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

All That Stands Between Light And Darkness Is The Night Watch.

Plot:

A fantasy-thriller set in present-day Moscow where the respective forces that control daytime and nighttime do battle.

Plot Keywords:

Battle | Vampire | Supernatural Power | Truce | Bridge

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Konstantin Khabenskiy	...	Anton Gorodetsky
Vladimir Menshov	...	Geser
Valeriy Zolotukhin	...	Kostya's Father
Mariya Poroshina	...	Svetlana
Galina Tyunina	...	Olga, the sorceress
Yuriy Kutsenko	...	Ignat (as Gosha Kutsenko)
Aleksey Chadov	...	Kostya (Anton's young vampire neighbor)
Zhanna Friske	...	Alice Donnikova
Ilya Lagutenko	...	Andrei
Viktor Verzhbitskiy	...	Zavulon
Rimma Markova	...	Darya Schultz, the witch
Mariya Mironova	...	Irina, Yegor's mother
Aleksey Maklakov	...	Simeon
Aleksandr Samoylenko	...	Ilya (Bear), mage-transformer
Dmitriy Martynov	...	Yegor (as Dmitri Martynov)
Anna Slyusareva	...	Lena (Tiger Cub), mage-transformer (as Anna Slyu)
Anna Dubrovskaya	...	Larisa
Sergey Prikhodko	...	Peter
Igor Savochkin	...	Maxim Ivanovich
Georgiy Dronov	...	Tolik (as Yegor Dronov)
Nikolay Olyalin	...	The Inquistor
Dmitriy Klokov
Dmitriy Osetrov
Konstantin Murzenko	...	Man in Metro
Anatoliy Gorin
Lyudmila Yaronova
Aleksandr Shchurok
Nikolay Kiselev
Marina Ivanova
Viktor Ivanov		(as Vitya Ivanov)
Polina Shchurok
Tatyana Shchankina	...	Woman on Plane
Aleksandr Kozlov
Igor Pismenniy
Viktoriya Smirnova
Sergey Kalashnikov
Ekaterina Malikova
Vladislav Anufriev		(as Vladik Anufriyev)
Yuri Yakovlev	...	Boy (as Yura Yakovlev)
Ivan Popov		(as Vanya Popov)
Aleksey Kurochkin		(as Lyosha Kurochkin)
Yaroslav Romashenko		(as Yarik Romashenko)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yuri Lowenthal	...	Kostya (voice: English version)
Darian Weiss	...	Yegor (voice: English version)
Blestyashchie	...	Alisa's Girl Group (uncredited)
Nikolay Drozdov	...	Animal World's host (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Sarah Michelle Gellar	...	Buffy Summers (archive footage) (uncredited)
Yuliya Kovalchuk	...	Singer in Alisa's Girl Group (uncredited)
Rudolf Martin	...	Dracula (archive footage) (uncredited)
Kseniya Novikova	...	Singer in Alisa's Girl Group (uncredited)
Anna Semenovich	...	Singer in Alisa's Girl Group (uncredited)
Georgiy Vitsin	...	Kuzjka (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Timur Bekmambetov

Writing credits (WGA)
Timur Bekmambetov		(screenplay) and
Laeta Kalogridis		(screenplay)
Sergei Lukyanenko		(novel)

Produced by
Varvara Avdyushko	....	executive producer (as Varvara Avdiushko)
Igor Bondarenko	....	executive producer
Konstantin Ernst	....	producer
Arthur Gorson	....	executive producer: post-production
Aleksei Kublitsky	....	executive producer
Aleksei Kulibin	....	supervising producer
Anatoly Maximov	....	producer

Original Music by
Yuriy Poteenko

Cinematography by
Sergey Trofimov

Film Editing by
Dmitriy Kiselev

Casting by
Tamara Odintsova

Production Design by
Mukhtar Mirzakeyev
Valeri Viktorov

Art Direction by
Valeri Viktorov		(as Valera Viktorov)

Costume Design by
Varvara Avdyushko		(as Varvara Avdiushko)

Production Management
Larry Ewing	....	post-production supervisor

Sound Department
Bob Bowman	....	assistant sound editor
Andy D'Addario	....	sound re-recording mixer
Pavel Doreuli	....	sound effects
Marc Fishman	....	additional sound re-recording mixer
Tony Lamberti	....	additional sound re-recording mixer
Aaron Levy	....	sound recordist
Jon Mete	....	supervising sound editor
Jon Title	....	sound editor
Karen Vassar	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Ilya Churinov	....	pyrotechnician
Peter Gorshenin	....	special effects
Angela Petrosyan	....	special effects producer

Visual Effects by
Denis Alymov	....	animator
Evgeny Barulin	....	visual effects supervisor
Gregory Chalenko	....	digital compositor: Bazelevs
Nick Damico	....	visual effects
Sergey Denisov	....	visual effects supervisor: Dr.PICTURE Studios
Arkadiy Dubinin	....	additional visual effects
Yaroslav Dyachenko	....	digital compositor
Andrey Emelyanov	....	digital artist
Eugene Gittsigrat	....	animator
Aleksandr Gorokhov	....	visual effects producer
Max Kirienko	....	visual effects supervisor
Vadim Kirillin	....	computer graphics artist
Viktor Lakisov	....	animation supervisor
Vladimir Leschinski	....	visual effects supervisor
Dan Lopez	....	visual effects
Andrei V. Nikitin	....	visual effects art director
Ruslan Ogorodnik	....	visual effects supervisor
Pavel Perepyolkin	....	visual effects art director
Angela Petrosyan	....	visual effects producer
Dmitry Robustov	....	research & development
Dmitry Shumkin	....	digital artist
Kirill Skaletski	....	digital effects artist
Maksim Sychev	....	computer graphics artist
Greg Tsadilas	....	digital effects artist
Nikolay Malyshev Ulitka	....	digital compositor
Ilya Vostrov	....	modeler
Johnny Wilson	....	visual effects
Sergei Zadorozhny	....	digital artist
Robert Lang	....	2K data colourist (uncredited)
Chris Wallace	....	2K data colourist (uncredited)

Stunts
Sergei Vorobyov	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Yelena Ivanova	....	director of photography: second unit
Nikolai Litvinov	....	Steadicam operator

Editorial Department
Dan Aguilar	....	digital intermediate editor
Tuija Kotamäki	....	negative cutter
Jonathan Slater	....	on-line editor

Music Department
Norik Basegian	....	musician: duduk
Nadezhda Chibisova	....	musician: piano solo
Alexei Rudnevsky	....	chorus director
Jim Schultz	....	music editor
Aleksandr Vedernikov	....	conductor

Other crew
Severi Glanville	....	2K data recordist (uncredited)
Mika Kongas	....	2k data recordist (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Bazelevs Production
• Channel One Russia
• TABBAK

Distributors

• 20th Century Fox Australia (2005) (Australia) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Netherlands (2005) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (2005) (France) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (2005) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox de Argentina (2005) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox of Germany (2005) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Bontonfilm (2005) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• FS Film Oy (2005) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Fox Searchlight Pictures (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Fox-Warner (2005) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Gemini Film (2004) (Russia) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment España S.A. (2006) (Spain) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Italia (2005) (Italy) (all media)
• Channel One Russia (TV)
• FS Film Oy (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Gativideo (2006) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Gativideo (2006) (Argentina) (VHS)

Special Effects

• Dr. PICTURE Studios (visual effects)
• "LESTA" Studio (visual effects)
• "Ulitka" Studio (visual effects)
• Bazelevs Production
• Encore Hollywood
• KeyArt (visual effects)
• Mosfilm-Art (visual effects)
• ORT-Design
• Perfect Pixels (visual effects)
• Postproduction.ru (visual effects)
• Reaction (visual effects)
• WE Project (additional visual effects)

Other Companies

• "Mi" Production Studio  visual effects
• Babich Design  visual effects
• FotoKem Laboratory  digital film services (as Fotokem)
• MentalDrive Studio  visual effects
• Russian National Symphony Orchestra  orchestra
• United Digital Artists  visual effects

Also Known As:

Night Watch: Nochnoi Dozor (International: English title) (UK)
Ночной дозор (Russia)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images and language.

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Spain:18 | Germany:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Australia:MA | Argentina:16 | Brazil:16 | Sweden:15 | Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18SG | Malaysia:U (cut) | Portugal:M/16 | New Zealand:R16 | South Korea:18 | Peru:14 | Japan:PG-12 | Canada:14A | Ireland:18 | Norway:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Czech Republic:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Moscow, Russia

Company:

Bazelevs Production

Trivia:

This film broke all records in Russia and became the #1 box-office movie of all time. The record was broken the following year by the Russian movie Turetskiy gambit (2005).

Goofs:

Continuity: There is a shot of the damaged jetliner flying towards the vortex, viewed from behind. There are four distinct exhaust plumes from the four jet engines, despite the fact that one of the port engines was supposed to have been earlier destroyed by striking a crow.

Quotes:

[Two agents of the Night Watch, Ilya and Semyon, wrestle on the kitchen floor with the witch, Darya Schultz]
Darya, Witch: [cries out] Little Masha! My little girl! Help! Masha! Masha! Help!
[Masha, Darya's familiar spirit, animates a small doll on a shelf above them, sprouting eight spider-like legs. After spilling cooking oil on them to free Darya's hands, she jumps down onto the kitchen floor, pauses briefly, and then slowly begins to advance on Ilya]
Transformer-Mage Ilya: [yelling at Masha] Go away! Go away, you filth! I'll rip your little head off!

Movie Connections:

Version of Nochnoy bazar (2005)

Soundtrack:

Nochnoy dozor (Finalnyy rep)

No masterpiece, but quite entertaining and imaginative

I enjoyed this movie quite a lot; if you are into Jeunet-type fantasy, I would recommend that you see it. Overall, I would give it a rating of 7 out of 10. The reason for the Jeunet comparison (e.g. Delicatessen, City of Lost Children) is that it has the same dark antiutopian/surrealistic ambiance to it, and is very imaginative. It is also very elaborate in its style, which lends most of the appeal to the movie. This being said, the biggest disappointment of the movie is the plot, which is overly straightforward and simple-minded, but at least it does not devolve into some technical meaningless psycho-babble as many Hollywood fantasy movies do, and maintains its fairy-tale quality.

It is unfortunate that modern Russian cinematography seems to be chasing the success of Hollywood (which is ironic, given the country's negative attitude towards US in general and Hollywood in particular), but this movie benefits from Hollywood-style special effects, and is free of annoying clichés (unlike the atrociously pretentious "Barber of Siberia" - another recent style-heavy Russian blockbuster; sorry Mikhalkov).

To sum up, this movie is quite original, imaginative, stylish and at times visually stunning, which in my book constitutes success, but don't expect any depth of ideas.