Is it true that Tarkovsky during the filming of Andrei Rublev burned a cow alive?

The conviction is widespread that on the set of Andrei Rublev, the director brutally treated animals, in particular, he burned a living cow. We checked what arguments are in support of this statement.

The fact that Andrei Tarkovsky brutally treated animals during the filming process is reported in a variety of sources: from sites zoo protection organizations to forums With the discussions of the cinema. Director Kira Muratov in an interview I admittedthat after she found out about this story, Tarkovsky "ceased to exist for her." Muratova position Separate And some users of the blog-platforms and social networks.

For the first time, the allegedly burned cow became known before the end of the filming, which took place from September 1964 to November 1965 in Pskov, Suzdal and several other historical cities of Central Russia. In September 1965, the editorial office of the newspaper Izvestia received letter From a professor of Latvian University Natalia Temnikova. She said with reference to the “good friend from Vladimir”: during the filming, the filmmakers “pour a living cow with kerosene and light up, imagine how the animal is tormented, runs in fire, mumbles. The same is done with horses. " The proceedings began, and the charges Commented Director of the sixth creative association Danilants: “A cow running out of a burning trim, covered by a flame, was removed. <...> For this purpose, one cow was taken after shooting for a slaughter. Currently, the filming group was instructed in further shooting of this kind of use of animals in any case. ” How exactly this scene was shot and whether the cow set fire alive, Danilants did not specify.

At the end of 1966, pre -premiere shows of the finished film, including for journalists, were held in Moscow. December 24 in the newspaper "Evening Moscow" appeared article Under the name "... and the cow flashed", in which the author reported that "at the request of the director" during the filming of a certain picture the animal was alive. Neither the name of the film, nor the name of the director, nor any other details that obviously indicate this particular work of Tarkovsky are mentioned in the text. Later, information about the burned person was confirmed by the director of the Vladimir-Suzdal reserve Alisa Aksyonova And the referent of Brezhnev Evgeny Samoykinwho allegedly “himself was engaged in this story, received complaints, extinguished discontent, made efforts so that history would not get into newspapers ...”.

Another indirect confirmation is in the book of Solomon Volkov “Evidence”, which is the memoirs of composer Dmitry Shostakovich (although many researchers are seriously They doubt it in their authenticity). In this book there is such fragment: “A talented director, a young man, making a film, decided that he needed a cow, covered by fire. But no one wanted to set fire to the cow - neither the assistant director, nor the operator, no one. Then the director himself doused the cow with kerosene and settled. The cow was worn with mooing, like a living torch, and they shot it. ” With Tarkovsky and Andrei Rublev, this story was connected by Volkov himself in a note to this statement.

The director understood that due to spreading rumors, the picture may not be allowed before the rental, and therefore tried to refute them. Publication in "Evening Moscow" Tarkovsky He called it Inxination, and in a letter to the chairman of the Committee on Cinematography at the Council of Ministers of the USSR, complained that the newspaper refused to publish his response. In February 1967, in an interview with Alexander Lipkov, the director declared: "We did not burn the cow, it was covered with a piece of asbestos." Indignation due to such accusations Tarkovsky expressed And later, when this story was recalled.

Tarkovsky’s position is also shared by the director of the picture of Tamara Ogorodnikov. In an interview with the film critic of Maya Turovskaya, she Name The story with a “completely far -fetched” cow burned alive. “While we shot one of the episodes of the Tatar invasion near the Vladimir Cathedral, a group from the central studio of documentaries came there and asked me for permission to make our filming. I allowed the foolishness, they took off just this episode with a cow, and this all went. In fact, everything was elementary. It was necessary that a burning cow darted around the courtyard; She was covered with asbestos, ordinary asbestos, and set on fire on top. She, of course, was scared and began to run, which was necessary. Well, of course, the cow did not burn - I was present on the shoot, and all this was with me. You look at the paintings, there is not like a cow-people are burning, but it does not occur to you that they are truly burned; This is a normal movie, ”explained Ogorodnikova. She connected the article in “Evening Moscow” and she connected rumors with the unwillingness of some people to allow the film for rental.

Thus, there are arguments in support of the two main versions: the cow was burned alive or the cow was covered with asbestos and set fire to a “cloak”. Certificates from the first group are difficult to consider reliable: their authors were not present directly during the shooting of this scene, many of them rely on the stories of third parties or are not based on anything at all. These shortcomings are deprived of arguments about the asbestos “cloak”, expressed primarily by the participants in the filming of Andrei Rublev. At the same time, it is impossible to reliably confirm this version, and Tarkovsky and his associates in this situation, obviously, the interested party and sought to achieve the admission of the film on the screens.

This is not for sure

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. https://www.mosfilm.ru/news/?element_id=23180
2. https://www.kinopoisk.ru/media/article/3303424/
3. M. Turovskaya. 7½, or Andrei Tarkovsky films