The novel by Viktor Pelevin "Chapaev and Emptiness" was published in 1996 and became a rather noticeable event. In Russia, the following year, he was included in the extended list of the Russian Booker Prize, and even reached the final in the fight for the 2001 Dublin Literary Prize. In 2013, it looks like it will be possible to watch a film based on this book.
Filming based on Pelevin's book begins in Germany. The initiative came from the director Tony Pemberton, who personally met the writer while working in Russia. Pemberton believes that a plot that combines themes of revolution, Russian modernity and symbolic display of several paths for the country's future development may become very relevant today. Pemberton and wrote the script with a fairly free adaptation of the text, which he introduced to Pelevin and received his approval.
Filming is scheduled to begin in September 2012, and the producers expect to complete the entire filming period in one month. This is due to the low budget of the picture, usually characteristic of art-house style films - only € 2.5 million was allocated for the shooting. The film should be released next year, and the title will be the same as the book published in America - Buddha's Little Finger.
British actor Toby Kebbell, known for his films Control, War Horse, Match Point, has been invited to star in the lead role of the decadent poet Peter Void. Chapaev will be played by German actor Andre Hennicke, Volodin's mobster - Stipe Erceg. The film is produced by Carsten Steter and financed by three German and Canadian foundations that support cinematography. Having weighed the pros and cons, the organizers of the film process abandoned filming in Russia and decided to confine themselves to the city of Leipzig in Germany. Although, according to the director, this caused certain difficulties - for example, it was not easy to find an apartment in German houses that looked like a communal apartment.
The plot of Viktor Pelevin's postmodern book is built around the transfer of Chapaev, Kotovsky, the commissar, revolutionary soldiers and sailors from Russia in 1919 to the country at the end of the last century. However, all these characters in the novel are not represented at all by the people with whom their surnames are associated. As, however, and the heroes of additional storylines, among which there is, for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger. What of all the variety of lines and characters Tony Pemberton will leave in his film - we will see next year.
