Abrau-Durso presents a film for its 150th anniversary

The idea to produce a historical film that would create a special mood and reflect Abrau-Durso's energy and magic appeared a couple of years ago, and the company's 150^th anniversary was a great reason to finally implement it. Boris Titov was the initiator and the mind behind the project, which was managed by Abrau-Durso’s Heritage Winemaking Traditions Revival Foundation. The making of the film started in June 2019. Filmservice, a video production company with 20 years of experience, helped bring the idea to life. Maria Barsukova was the screenplay writer and the production director of the film. 

This emotional film tells a story about the legendary place and about the people that created this unique winery and managed to preserve it despite all the challenges that they had to face at different times. The film's documentary part is based on archive materials. It explains how the history of Abrau-Durso is connected with the country's important historical events. Elements of fiction help us delve into the atmosphere of this place and feel different historical periods of the Winehouse.

The roles of the key characters in Abrau-Durso's history, Victor Darvigny, Anton Frolov-Bagreev, Eduard Vedel, have been performed by Russian theatre and cinema actors. In addition to professional actors, the current company owners, father and son, Boris and Pavel Titovs, Georges Blanc, Abrau-Durso's chief oenologist, and the oldest winemakers of this legendary company, Georgy Nepranov an Lidia Adiguzelova, participated in the film. 

"This film is the expression of our love for our work, which defines our lives, and for the people and the place that create the magic of wine together. For this reason, we decided to combine fiction and documentary. We wanted to tell the story of this unique winery through the stories of the people who devoted themselves to creating and keeping it, who are sincerely in love with what they do and who really have expertise in winemaking. Our purpose was to make the audience feel part of our history, feel the beauty of the nature and of human-made vineyards, get to know the people who devoted themselves to this place, and simply to share our love for the amazing Abrau-Durso Winehouse", says Anna Levychkina, Project Director of Abrau-Durso Heritage Foundation.  

Landscapes, scenes in the vineyards, in the lab and at production facilities were shot in Abrau-Durso. Historical scenes were made partly in Abrau-Durso and partly in Moscow. For example, the 1960s scene was shot in the ZIL Cultural Centre, and World War II scenes were shot at a devastated plant on the outskirts of Moscow. An interesting turn was the reconstruction of the original 1973 cover of the Ogonyok Magazine devoted to the 100-millionth bottle of sparkling wine. The production team had to find an actress that resembled the cover girl, and the film's dress designers created a full replica of the dress. The music was created especially for the film by the composer Vsevolod Saksonov. It became a beautiful addition to the film's story.

"Every detail of this film reflects the atmosphere of this unique place, its historical and cultural value, which is intrinsically connected with the history of Russia and with the history of winemaking. Abrau-Durso is not just a company, it is our home, it is what we do. We keep its traditions and respect the memory of the people that invested their time, their energy and their soul into it. In the year 2020, we celebrate Abrau-Durso's 150^th anniversary, and we have planned a lot of interesting events for this year. We hope that despite the consequences and restrictions of the pandemic, we will manage to implement most of the projects planned for the anniversary", says Pavel Titov, President of Abrau-Durso Russian Winehouse.