The film about Anton Chekhov was shot for 16 years, but has not yet been released

Outside of evening. Russia, 2019. Directed by Marlen Khutsiev. Actors: Vladislav Vetrov, Alexei Osipov and others.

For a long time it was believed that the record for the duration of filming was set by Alexei German (1938–2013): he shot and mounted the movie “It is difficult to be a god” from 1999 to 2013. Thus, the lead actor Leonid Yarmolnik starred in this film for about 14 years!

However, this record was soon closed by no less famous director Marlen Khutsiev (1925–2019), who shot and mounted his film about the dialogue between Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy — “Outside of evening” from 2003 to 2019 …

As a result, the actor Vladislav Vetrov played the role of Anton Chekhov about 16 years, and the film is still not released …

I have seen the material of this film by Marlena Khutsiev: Vladislav Vetrov played the role of Chekhov, in my opinion, very convincing, psychologically delicate and intelligent. And the portrait resemblance to the great writer in his “Outside of evening” is simply amazing!

It should be noted that V. Vetrov plays Chekhov in the movie is not the first time, before he had already successfully played the role of Chekhov in the short film “I’m not passing Taganrog…” (1997) (https://zen.yandex.ru/media/filmhistory/taganroga-ia-ne-minuiu-5d17b64160d75900ad953472).

Here’s what Vladislav Vetrov told me (https://zen.yandex.ru/media/filmhistory/vlad-vetrov-taganrogbadenbaden-moskva-5ced92330d8ac500ae46f558 ) about the shooting in — “Outside of evening”:

- “This role for me is very important, including biographical reasons, because my childhood was in my hometown Chekhov — Taganrog, graduated from school there, played in the local theater. It is a great success that Marlen Khutsiev chose me for the role of Chekhov. Khutsiev works carefully on every episode. He can shoot more than a dozen takes of one small scene, making sure that the details of the setting, lighting, plastics meet his director’s vision. He has to inspire everything… Khutsiev works without rush, very carefully, I would say even, carefully. Sometimes he can only shoot a few frames in a day. And when the producers try to rush him, he insists on his own and continues cinematic witchcraft…”

It’s hard to say when “Outside of evening” will be seen by a wide audience, but I hope it does happen…

Alexander Fedorov, 2020