"This is such concentrated schizophrenia. Lugansk chainsaw massacre"

NTV will air a film about the war in Donbass, paid for by Yevgeny Prigozhin. However, the filming took place not in Donbass, but in Yevpatoria

On August 18, the NTV channel will premiere the film "Solntsepek" about the Wagner PMC fighters. This is the fifth film (and the second mercenary saga in a row) that Yevgeny Prigozhin sponsored, according to two of Meduza's sources familiar with the businessman's film projects. At the end of July, a trailer for the film appeared on YouTube — in it, you can see that, for example, People's Artist of the Russian Federation Vladimir Ilyin starred in the film.

“[NTV] will release an epic film made by Yevgeny Viktorovich. I watched it and was insanely delighted, because it’s such concentrated schizophrenia. The Lugansk chainsaw massacre,” a source from among the former employees of Prigozhin’s structures told Meduza. “The same people [who made the film The Tourist about Russian mercenaries in the Central African Republic] made a film about Lugansk on Prigozhin’s orders. This is also a film about the Wagner PMC — it looks like they decided to de-anonymize themselves by presenting the public with a romanticized, propaganda version of themselves,” another source, who was previously involved in the filming of one of Prigozhin’s five films, told Meduza. As in the other films, the mercenaries, with whom Yevgeny Prigozhin continues to deny any connection, are presented as unconditionally positive heroes — although they have previously been accused of torture and brutal murders .

All of Prigozhin’s film projects are filmed extremely quickly, added a source from the film industry. But filming movies about mercenaries has its own specifics. “In ‘Tourist,’ they filmed real Wagner PMC bases [in the Central African Republic],” says a source who participated in the filming of one of Prigozhin’s five films. “The salary was higher, but the organization was terrible: the group was poorly fed, three people got malaria during filming. At the same time, the film crew was forbidden to photograph the Chevekashniks — this is very strict. One person had his phone formatted for accidentally filming one of the fighters. They were engaged in security, escorting [the film crew].”

The action in the film "Solntsepek" takes place in the summer of 2014 on the territory of the unrecognized Luhansk People's Republic, but filming took place in Yevpatoria, a source from the Russian film industry told Meduza. Announcements of the release of this film, as in the case of previous films, appeared on resources associated with Prigozhin - for example, on RIA FAN, which is part of the Patriot media group, the board of trustees of which Prigozhin officially headed in 2019 (although before that he denied his relationship with the media group's publications, despite journalistic investigations into his ties to these media outlets).

The announcement of "Solntsepek" was also aired on the pro-government city TV channel "Saint Petersburg". Media manager Alexander Malkevich was appointed its editor-in-chief in January 2021. In the past, he was the head of an English-language online project called USA Really, copying the design of RIA FAN, and was subject to personal sanctions in the United States for attempting to interfere in the US elections .

"Yevgeny Viktorovich has no information on whether he financed the filming of Solntsepek," the businessman's press service responded to Meduza's request. "It is known that at a closed screening, producer Sergei Shcheglov thanked the "customer" for the idea, constant participation, and sponsorship of this film. Whether this was related to Yevgeny Viktorovich, we do not know."

Liliya Yapparova