''The Balkan Line'' (russian: Балканский рубеж, Balkanskiy rubezh; sr, / ) is a 2019

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n–

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by Andrey Volgin, depicting the Russian military's secret operation to capture

Slatina Airport Slatina Air Base ( sq, Aeroporti Sllatina; sr, Аеродром Слатина / Aerodrom Slatina), located at Pristina International Airport Adem Jashari, contained the second largest military underground hangar complex in the former Yugoslavia ...

in Kosovo after the bombing of Yugoslavia, led by Yunus-bek Yevkurov. These events became the most dangerous aggravation of relations between the Russians and the West since the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...

. The film was released in Russia on 21 March 2019 (three days prior to the 20th anniversary of the events depicted in the film); it was released by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

) after the

acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by the Walt Disney Company included the 20th Century Fox film and ...

Plot

In 1999, during the bombing of Yugoslavia and the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...

, Slatina airfield is taken over by a UÇK battalion led by an Albanian warlord, Smuk. Afterwards, an operation to capture the airfield from them is conducted by

GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...

agents. The separatists engage in organ harvesting, robberies, assassinations, and ethnic cleansing. GRU officer Aslan-Bek Evkhoev and former paratrooper-turned-mercenary Andrey Shatalov head a small detachment tasked with the dangerous mission to stop the Albanians, recapture the airfield held from them, and hold it until

Russian Airborne Troops The Russian Airborne Forces (russian: Воздушно-десантные войска России, ВДВ, Vozdushno-desantnye voyska Rossii, VDV) are the airborne forces branch of the Russian Armed Forces. It was formed in 1992 from units of ...

reinforcements stationed in Bosnia arrive ahead of NATO forces, which the team will leave beforehand, as well as rescue Shatalov's love interest Jasna Blagojević, who was captured to be harvested for organs, along with several ethnic Serb prisoners.

Cast

* as Andrey Shatalov "Shatay" *

Gosha Kutsenko Yuriy Georgiyevich Kutsenko (russian: Ю́рий Гео́ргиевич Куце́нко; born 20 May 1967), better known as Gosha Kutsenko (russian: Гоша Куценко), is a Russian actor, producer, singer, poet, and screenwriter. In 2008, ...

as Aslan-Bek "Bek" Evkhoev (based on Yunus-Bek Yevkurov) *

Miloš Biković Miloš Biković ( sr-Cyrl, Милош Биковић, ; born January 13, 1988) is a Serbian actor and producer. His best known films are box office hits '' Serf'' and ''South Wind''. He is also known for his roles in movies ''Sunstroke'' directe ...

as Vuk Majevski, Yugoslav police officer * as Jasna Blagojević, doctor *

Gojko Mitić Gojko Mitić ( sr-Cyrl, Гојко Митић; born June 13, 1940) is a German-Serbian actor and director. He gained great popularity in the GDR as the leading actor in historical and fictional Indian personalities in numerous DEFA Indian films. ...

as Goran Milić, head of the Yugoslav police station * Sergey Marin as Ilya Slashchev "Slush" * Nodari Janelidze as Rustam Mamatgireyev "Girey" *

Kirill Polukhin Kirill Alekseevich Polukhin (russian: Кирилл Алексеевич Полухин; born 3 May 1969) is a Soviet and Russian film, stage, and television actor. Early life Polukhin was born in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint P ...

as Oleg Barmin "Baria", sapper * Ravshana Kurkova as Vera Kurbaeva, sniper * Dmitriy Frid as Dr. Stern, doctor from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, Smuk's accomplice * as Smuk * as Marta, doctor, assistant to Dr. Stern * as Amir * Nikola Randelović as Stevan *

Roman Kurtsyn Roman Dmitrievich Kurtsyn (russian: link=no, Рома́н Дми́триевич Ку́рцын; born 14 March 1985) is a Russian actor. Selected filmography References External links * 1985 births Living people Russian male film a ...

as Senior Lieutenant Nikolay Poltoratskiy, platoon commander *

Emir Kusturica Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and musician. He also has French citizenship.http://www.serbia.com/emir-kusturica-artist-builder-and-anti-glo ...

as taxi driver (cameo appearance) * Mikhail Khmurov as General Dmitriy Ivanovich Somov

Production

The creators of the film the Balkan Line 2019

The idea of creating a film about the events in Yugoslavia came to

in 2012, during a conversation with a friend, Slovak producer Vasil Shevts. The writer Ivan Naumov was invited to write the script, and he created a 600-page love story of a Russian peacekeeper and a Serbian girl. Kutsenko later met with producer Vadim Byrkin and General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who agreed to help him. The real details of the operation in which Yevkurov participated (at that time - the

special forces major) are still under the stamp of secrecy, so the scriptwriters thought up the plot at their own discretion, and Yevkurov advised them on the reliability of what was happening.

Casting

was first offered the role of a Russian soldier, but he refused, deciding that it would be more logical for him to play a

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

in a joint film between Russia and Serbia. However, he immediately agreed to help organize the filming in his homeland and became not only an actor, but also one of the producers of the film. Milena Radulović ( sr) especially for participating in the filming of the film studied Russian and improved it every time, after which she now speaks it with almost no accent.

played a small role as a

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

taxi driver; According to executive producer Anastasia Pelevina, at first the director had to enter the crew from the Serbian side, but their work schedules did not match.

Filming

For the filming, all the actors playing the role of special forces went through heavy two-month training which focused on shooting and physical conditioning.

Location filming In geography, location or place are used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ...

took place in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast ( rus, Моско́вская о́бласть, r=Moskovskaya oblast', p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ), or Podmoskovye ( rus, Подмоско́вье, p=pədmɐˈskovʲjə, literally "under Moscow"), is a federal subject of Rus ...

Republic of Crimea The Republic of Crimea, translit. ''Respublika Krym'' ; uk, Республіка Крим, translit. ''Respublika Krym'' ; crh, , is an unrecognized federal subject (republic) of Russia, located in the Crimean Peninsula. Its territory cor ...

, Russia and Serbia.

Release

The film was released to Russia, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on March 21, 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balkan Line, The 2019 films 2010s historical action films 2010s Russian-language films 2010s Serbian-language films Russian action films Serbian action films 2019 multilingual films 2019 action thriller films 2010s action war films Russian action thriller films Russian action war films Serbian war films Yugoslav Wars films Works about the Kosovo War Films about special forces Films set in 1995 Russian historical action films Bosnian War films Films set in 1999 Action films based on actual events 2010s pregnancy films Films set in Kosovo Films set in Belgrade Films set in Serbia Films shot in Serbia Russian multilingual films Films about terrorism in Europe Films set in Moscow Russian films about revenge Films about mass murder Historical epic films Films shot in Moscow Films shot in Crimea Films shot in Russia Films shot in Belgrade Cultural depictions of Serbian people Cultural depictions of Russian people Russian pregnancy films Serbian pregnancy films Serbian multilingual films