The Banishment

Name: The Banishment
Genre: Drama
Released: 2008-03-27
Duration: 2 h 38 min
Rating: 7.3
Cast: Konstantin Lavronenko, Aleksandr Baluev, Maria Bonnevie, Dmitri Ulyanov, Vitaly Kishchenko

If you want to kill, kill. If you want to forgive, forgive.

Изгнание (2008)

Timing: 2:38 (158 min)

7.3/10
44 824

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7.2/10
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7.5/10
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Everything about the movie

Video 2

Photo 25

Actors and characters

Video for the film The Banishment — Trailer - Banishment

2:02

Photo 25

Release date

Country

Production

Genre

Budget

$4 500 000

Box office

$641 101

Website

https://www.curzonartificialeye.com/the-banishment/

Director

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Actors

Konstantin Lavronenko, Aleksandr Baluev, Maria Bonnevie, Dmitri Ulyanov, Vitaly Kishchenko, Maksim Shibayev, Aleksey Vertkov, Igor Sergeev, Yekaterina Kulkina, Ira Gonto
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Dmitriy Lesnevskiy, Yelena Loginova

Camera operator

Mikhail Krichman

Composer

Arvo Pärt

Artist

Andrey Ponkratov

Audition

Editing

Anna Mass
Whole Team (17)

Short description

While vacationing in the countryside at his childhood home, a woman suddenly reveals to her husband that she is expecting a child – but not his.

What's left behind the scenes

During dubbing, the lines of Vera (played by Maria Bonnevie) were voiced by Elena Lyadova. The search for a dubbing actress lasted several months, running parallel to the film's editing. More than seventy candidates were auditioned. To avoid bias, the director decided that all of them would record two key scenes anonymously. Afterward, he listened to the recordings and selected a few voices for the final stage of auditions. The final choice fell on Elena; in the director's opinion, her voice perfectly complemented the image Maria Bonnevie created in the role of Vera.
One third of the film stock used for the movie "The Banishment"—specifically 20,000 meters of Kodak—was given to Luigi De Laurentiis in Venice in 2003 as a prize for the best directorial debut ("The Return"). A second third was also an award for "The Return"; the Nika Academy presented a certificate for 17,000 meters of Kodak negative film for the best Russian film of 2004.
When it was decided to invite Maria Bonnevie, an actress from the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Sweden, for an audition, a complication arose: according to her contract with the theater, Maria was required to perform in a new play for the coming year, the premiere of which had already been announced. 'When we started looking for a way to allow Maria to participate in the filming, I was told: you'll have to settle this matter with the Prime Minister,' recalls producer Dmitry Lesnevsky. Under Swedish law, a performance cannot be canceled if even a single ticket has been sold. Lesnevsky suggested that the theater director buy back all the tickets for the performances featuring Maria Bonnevie. Unfortunately, although there were still several months until the premiere, five tickets had already been sold. Nevertheless, a solution was found: to wait for Maria, the filming of the movie had to be postponed by nearly a year.
One-third of the film stock used to shoot 'The Banishment,' specifically 20,000 meters of Kodak, was presented to Luigi De Laurentiis in Venice in 2003 as a prize for Best Directorial Debut ('Return'). Another third was also an award for 'Return.' A certificate for 17,000 meters of Kodak negative film was presented by the Nika Academy for Best Russian Film of 2004.
The film was shot in several countries: urban exteriors were filmed in France and Belgium; studio and interior shots were filmed in Moscow, Russia; and in Moldova, a house, a bridge over a ravine, a church, and a cemetery next to the church were specially constructed for the production. Designing the church and cemetery proved particularly difficult, as they were not to contain obvious signs of belonging to any specific denomination. The church, like the house on the hill, had to look very old on screen, which required meticulous work by the set decorators on textures. To achieve this, German specialists were invited to join the art team, who used modern technologies to create high-quality 'mossy stone' and 'age' the wood.
The film contains no obvious clues that would allow one to pinpoint the exact time and place of the events. Initially, the creators were not even sure which language they would use to film the movie. In the end, the original text is in Russian, and even the Swedish actress Maria Bonnevie had to learn her role in Russian.
The film was shot in several countries – in France and Belgium for urban exteriors, in Russia, in Moscow – for studio and interior shots, and also in Moldova, where a house, a bridge over a ravine, a church, and a cemetery next to the church were specially built for the filming. It proved particularly difficult to design the church and cemetery – they shouldn't contain obvious signs of belonging to any specific denomination. The church, like the house on the hill, had to look very old in the frame, which required meticulous work from the set decorators with textures. For this task, German specialists were invited to the art department, who, using modern technologies, were able to create “high-quality mossy stone” and “age” the wood.
Elena Lyadova dubbed the voice of Vera (played by Maria Bonnevi). The search for a voice actress lasted several months, running parallel to the film's editing process. Over seventy candidates were auditioned. To remain impartial, the director decided that all of them would dub two key scenes incognito. He then listened to the recordings and selected a few voices for the final stage of auditions. Ultimately, Elena was chosen: her voice, according to the director, perfectly matched the image created by Maria Bonnevi in the role of Vera.