"In the Forests and on the Mountains" is a 2010 Russian-Ukrainian historical TV series directed by Alexander Kholmsky, an adaptation of the dilogy by Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov-Pechersky. The series consists of 24 episodes and is linked to the Nizhny Novgorod area through its source material: the action of the novel "In the Forests," which formed the basis of the plot, unfolds in the Old Believer Vetluga Region beyond the Volga and in the Kerzhenets River area — on the lands of what is now the Semyonovsky District.

About the Series

The series is set in the mid-19th century in the fictional Volga town of Rozgov. At the center of the plot is Potap Maksimych Chapurin, a "thousander" merchant (one with a capital of a thousand rubles or more) who trades in tableware at the Yarmarka, and his relationship with the family of the miller Maslennikov: father and son compete over the same girl, and the characters' fates become entangled in romantic and property disputes.[1][2]

The director is Alexander Kholmsky; the DVD edition credits Alexander Zamyatin Jr. as director.[1] The leading roles are played by Vladimir Gostyukhin, Olga Arntgolts, Alexey Vorobyov, Yulia Snigir, Igor Kostolevsky, Evgenia Dobrovolskaya, Elena Drobysheva, Maria Lugovaya, Ruslan Yagudin, and Darya Ivanova.[2][3] The series aired on the channels Rossiya 1 and Channel One; it was produced jointly with Ukraine.[4] The DVD edition was distributed by the company Home Serial.[1]

The Nizhny Novgorod Storyline

The series is based on the dilogy by Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov-Pechersky (1818–1883), a native of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. The first part of the dilogy, "In the Forests" (1874), describes the life of the Old Believers beyond the Volga; its geographical prototype is the basin of the Kerzhenets River in what is now the Semyonovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[5]

The key setting of the novel is the Komarovsky Skete on the Kerzhenets, one of the oldest and largest Old Believer sketes in the region. In 1826 it had 26 monasteries, and by the middle of the 19th century, 12 monasteries, three chapels, and two prayer houses; at one time up to a thousand monks and novices lived in the skete. It is here, according to Melnikov-Pechersky, that Abbess Manefa and the other central characters are active.[5] The series was filmed in Moscow, the Moscow Region, Tver, Kostroma, and Yaroslavl — no filming took place in Nizhny Novgorod Region.

Sources

  1. prdisk.ru — The series In the Forests and on the Mountains — Buy on DVD
  2. rserial.tv — Watch In the Forests and on the Mountains (2010 series), episode 7, online for free in good HD 720 quality on Rserial.TV
  3. smotrim.ru — The series In the Forests and on the Mountains (2010) — watch online for free in good quality on "SMOTRIM"
  4. russkieseriali.ru — In the Forests and on the Mountains (2010 series), episode 13, watch online for free in good HD 720 quality
  5. KP — Nizhny Novgorod
  6. yandex.ru — Yandex — video search
  7. kinomania.ru — announcements of episodes and seasons