The film 'Olympic Target' was made in 1978 by film maker Vladimir Lapin, out of the Western Siberia newsreel studios in Novosibirsk. In 1987, this black and white film won a special award, given by the International Olympic Committee, at the Tunisia International Sports Film Festival. It had also won awards in 1979 in Film Festivals in Italy, Budapest and Kiev.
The 1987 award went almost unnoticed by the Soviet public. It was a time of change; restructuring and elections were more in the news then. Of course, at the time that the film was made, 'Masha' was loved by the whole country. She was the tiniest little girl on the Soviet team, complete with pigtails, and was already an Olympic Champion.
Lapin says that the film was the idea of Moscow scriptwriter Leonid Gurevich. The Director was Valery Klabukov, whom Lapin knew from their time together at the Institute of Cinematography. The whole film took only about two months to put together from start to finish ... much less than some of the wildlife films he had been involved in. The creative principle of all these films was to stand back and let the action happen ... there are some 'set piece' elements, but mostly the action was shot as it happened, in real time. Lapin goes on to give various examples of his film making experience, including shooting films of birds in Siberia, but most noteably a documentary on Russian wrestling legend Alexander Karelin. Lapin talks of how he managed to capture the precise moment Karelin took off, leapt over a barrier into the arms of his parents after winning a major title. He says that through his film making he somehow managed to develop a sense of the moment something was about to happen. That shot at the beginning and end of the film ... where Maria lands her vault and her team mates shout 'Stoi!' is one such moment.
The film was shot in four places - the big gymnasium in Leninsk-Kuznetsk, a competition in Minsk, and the national training centre in Moscow. Some of the slow motion pieces were also shot in a studio in Moscow. They had to make do with basic technical equipment. The film was shot in black and white because the colour film they could acquire would not give a good result in the lights in the gym. Most of the colour film making equipment they needed was only available with Government authority.
He explains that in addition to the films about Filatova and Karelin, he also shot a documentary about a famous ice hockey referee, Yuri Carandini. As a child he had spent hours at the local Novosibirsk ice rink, watching ice hockey matches. He filmed all over the Soviet Union,
Back to the film about Maria Filatova, Lapin says that they didn't spend that long in Moscow and Leninsk-Kuznetsk actually doing the filming. They spent New Year's Eve in Leninsk-Kuznetsk to capture Maria with her family, and otherwise they had to schedule filming around her training and competition schedule. He didn't get to know Maria well, preferring as a general rule to keep a distance from the subjects of his films.
He says that the atmosphere in the training camps was very heavy, and that the coaches were a little 'embarrassed' by the film-makers' presence. The air was often full of profanity, and even the smallest child was not indulged if she fell. 'This life is not to be envied', he says.
He says that he didn't know much about the awards at all at the time that they were granted, reading about the 1987 award from the IOC in a copy of Sovietski Sport newspaper. He never actually received the award. Today, he doesn't have any money, and has no camera to make any more films.
Prepared by Alexander Sklyarenko with the support of the Karelin Fund
You can find the film at Maria Filatova's website here
The film is a classic, like so many of its ilk. In addition to Maria, you will see a very young Natalia Yurchenko, along with Maria's contemporary, Natalia Shaposhnikova, and 1980 Olympian Stella Zakharova. There is an interview with Lioudmilla Tourischeva. Coaches featured include Maria's personal coach, Innokenty Mametyev, as well as the legendary Vladislav Rotstorotsky and coach to 1980 Olympic Champion Elena Davidova, Gennady Korshunov. 1978 World Champion Elena Mukhina also briefly features towards the end of the film.
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