The Book of Masters
| The Book of Masters | |
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| Directed by | Vadim Sokolovsky |
| Produced by |
Leonid Vereshchagin, Marina Zhigalov-Ozkan |
| Written by | Vadim Sokolovsky, Anna Starobinets |
| Based on | Russian fairy tales |
| Music by | Yuri Poteyenko |
| Cinematography | Archil Akhvlediani |
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Release date
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Running time
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101 minutes |
| Country |
 Russia
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| Language | Russian |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Box office | $10,9 million |
The Book of Masters (Russian: Книга Мастеров, tr. Kniga Masterov) is a Russian language fantasy film produced by the CIS division of the Disney company and directed by Vadim Sokolovsky. It was released in Russia on October 29, 2009. The story is based on Russian fairy tales, such as "The Stone Flower" and other stories from The Malachite Casket collection. It is Disney's first film made in Russia.
A beautiful and kind girl, daughter of Baba Yaga, finds a magical stone Alatyr while walking in a field. It transforms her heart into a stone and puts her under a queer curse. She is to be the evil Countess of Stones and live in a stone tower. If the greatest gem-cutter in the world brings the stone of Alatyr to life, though, she'll become the ruler of the world.
The Stone Countess, now cruel and selfish, is fascinated with the idea. She starts searching for the best gem-cutters and forces them to work with Alatyr, so the magical stone would become a living thing. Neither of the gem-cutters succeeds, so she kills them. While being imprisoned in her tower, they work on a large book about the secrets of gem-cutting. Each of them edits the book, so it's later named "the Book of Masters".
Meanwhile, the Countess creates a talking magic mirror, whom she treats like a soulless thing. Also, she makes a large army of stone soldiers - the Ardars. She often sends them to terrorize common people and to capture some of them to feed Baba Yaga, who's mostly a cannibal.
The plot develops, picturing a young orphan Ivan, who lives in an ordinary village but dreams of becoming the world's best gem-cutter. His father had actually been kidnapped by the Stone Countess, and Ivan also secretly plans to avenge it.
One day, he makes a sculpture of his landlord's daughter Clava, showing her fatness and ugliness in a grotesque way. The landlord, who adores his daughter, orders to punish Ivan severely. The execution doesn't even start before the village faces another attack of the Ardars, who capture Ivan and Clava and bring them to Baba Yaga.
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