16 years have passed since the death of Sergei Bodrov's group in the Karmadon Gorge, and talk about this tragic event has not died down to this day. Moreover, some argue that Sergei Bodrov could have survived.
It could have been different
The film crew of the film "The Messenger" was supposed to go to the Karmadon Gorge early in the morning of September 20, 2002, but due to bad weather the event was postponed until 1 pm. As a result, the shooting lasted until the evening: only when it was getting dark, the group, together with the participants of the equestrian theater "Narta", moved back. At about 20:08 local time, completely unexpectedly for the filmmakers, the Kolka glacier began to descend, which in a matter of minutes covered the Karmadon Gorge with a 100-meter layer of ice, stones and mud for 12 kilometers.
The catastrophe, according to the official version, was provoked by a glacier on Mount Dzhimara, which fell off a cliff under the force of its gravity. According to experts, the speed of the ice avalanche reached 170 km / h. As a result of the descent of the glacier, the village of Upper Karmadon and more than 100 of its inhabitants were buried. Nothing remained of the village, not even the foundations of the houses. To survive in such conditions 26 members of the film crew was tantamount to a miracle.
It was known for a long time about the possible descent of the glacier, but no one could say exactly when the disaster would occur. However, a couple of days before the fatal event, unusual activity was recorded in the area of Mount Dzhimara. Most likely, it was hanging glaciers from neighboring peaks that began to bombard Kolka. However, these data were not taken into account. Many experts express the opinion that human casualties could have been avoided if the service of glaciologists had not been abolished.
Not without mysticism
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Sergei Bodrov created the script of the philosophical and mystical parable "The Messenger" for about six months. “Either we will defeat the world with this film, or we will fail in full,” said the filmmaker. Producer Sergei Selyanov, who collaborated with Bodrov, described the idea of the future picture as follows: “This is a very complex project. This is a project for filmmakers of the highest category, for people who can go beyond the rational, sensually comprehend the world. Here "Messenger" was like that."
According to one version, the filming location was offered to Bodrov by actor Andrei Fedortsov, who admired the beauty of these strange places. There were many strange things during the filming of the film. By some mystical coincidence, from the entire team that came to the shooting in North Ossetia, two survived - Anna Dubrovskaya and Alexander Mezentsev. They did not go to the mountains that fateful day. It was their heroes who had to survive according to the script of the film.
Another coincidence turned out to be mystical. In Vladikavkaz, Bodrov lived in the same hotel with another film crew headed by film director Yaropolk Lapshin. In a nearby gorge, he filmed the film "Hello, brother!", In which there are scenes of the descent of a glacier, destroying an entire settlement. After the tragedy in the Karmadon Gorge, it was decided to give the film a new name - "Sel".
Those in contact with the film crew during those September days noted the depressed mood of many of its members. People were feverish and did not show a desire to go to the mountains, the equipment junked, as if giving signs of an impending disaster. The wife of Sergei Bodrov, Svetlana later admitted that her husband had a premonition of the tragedy: “On that day he was sad. He spoke to me for a long time on the phone. Something worried him. " The last words that Sergei Bodrov said to his wife were: "Take care of the children."
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Despite the fact that almost no one doubts the death of Bodrov Jr., some residents of the villages near the Cardamom Gorge say that the film director and his group could survive. And someone allegedly even saw Sergei alive after many years. One way or another, it can be assumed that for some time after the glacier disappeared, the members of the Bodrov group were alive.
For example, Said Dranikov, who headed one of the rescue teams involved in the search for the film group, claimed that within an hour and a half after the collapse of Kolka, filmmakers got in touch. According to Dranikov's assumption, Bodrov and his comrades could have managed to get to the automobile tunnel. In the end, rescuers unearthed the passage to the tunnel, but found only the remains of sheep and horses.
The active phase of the search and rescue work lasted about two months, then volunteers and relatives of the filmmakers joined the operation, who spent about two years in the gorge. As a result, it was possible to find only 19 bodies out of almost one and a half hundred, buried under the glacier, 127 are still listed as missing, among them Bodrov and his group.
Recently, workers who were laying pipes along the Genaldon River, not far from the place where Bodrov's team disappeared, found the body of a car with the remains of people. The fans of the filmmaker had a hope that perhaps there were members of the film crew among them, and maybe Sergei himself. However, as stated in the Prosecutor's Office, it is possible to establish the identity of the victims only after the painstaking work of geneticists. According to experts, in the future it will be possible to shed light on many questions, but for this it is necessary that the glacier finally melt. This is expected to take about 12 years.
Taras Repin