Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov (born 21 October 1945, Moscow) is a film director and actor. His connection to Nizhny Novgorod and the Region encompasses three films whose key scenes were shot here, as well as an estate with hunting grounds near the village of Shchepachikha in Pavlovsky District: the director took a liking to the location during the filming of *The Barber of Siberia*, and in the early 2000s he became its owner.[1][2] The forests around the estate are also connected to a public dispute over logging in the Tumbotinskiy wildlife reserve in the autumn of 2020.[3][4]
"Burnt by the Sun": the dacha on the Kudma
The unhurried scenes of dacha life featuring the family of division commander Kotov in the first film of the trilogy were shot in Zelenyy Town — a dacha settlement outside Nizhny Novgorod. The house in which the action unfolds stood on the bank of the Kudma.[1] According to the Dom Kino television channel, the dacha was located not far from Kstovo.[5]
The dacha was occupied by the head of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration, Dmitry Bednyakov.[1][6] Mikhalkov's studio TRITE noted that most of the interior furnishings also belonged to the house's owner — for the sequel, the entire interior had to be recreated on the Mosfilm studio sets.[7]
The film was released in 1994 and earned the director an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; the Nizhny Novgorod dacha remained on screen as the main setting throughout.[1]
"The Barber of Siberia": Gorbatov and Schelokovsky Khutor
Scenes from the historical melodrama "The Barber of Siberia" were filmed near the town of Gorbatov in Pavlovsky District.[1] The final scenes were shot in Nizhny Novgorod, at the open-air museum Schelokovsky Khutor: wooden houses, barns, and fences were specially built there, and the new structures were artificially aged — moss was glued onto the logs and the timber was rubbed down to look old.[1]
The enormous self-propelled sawmill, one of the film's distinctive props, was made by Nizhny Novgorod craftsmen at one of the local factories.[1]
The filming marked the director's first extended acquaintance with the Pavlovsky area: it was then that he found the site for his future estate.[1][2]
"Burnt by the Sun 2": Polyany and the Fortress near Nizkovo
In 2005, the film crew returned to Pavlovsky District.[1] The battle scenes of "Exodus" were filmed near the village of Polyany, where a Belarusian village of the Great Patriotic War era was recreated for the film — its streets filled with military vehicles and actors in Wehrmacht uniforms.[1]
Scenes from "Citadel" were filmed near the village of Nizkovo. A massive fortress set of concrete, wood, and plaster was constructed there and partially demolished in the finale; local residents recall that the explosions rattled houses in Gorbatov. The remains of the fortress are still visible at the filming location.[1]
In the summer of 2007, Governor Valery Shantsev announced that Mikhalkov had asked for the use of Valery Chkalov's dacha in Zelenyy Town for filming the sequel — the very dacha that Stalin had given to the pilot. The building was in a dilapidated state at the time and required restoration.[8]
Nizhny Novgorod filming locations
| Film | Location | What Was Filmed |
|---|---|---|
| "Burnt by the Sun" (1994) | Zelenyy Town, a dacha on the bank of the Kudma River | scenes of the Kotov family's dacha life[1] |
| "The Barber of Siberia" (1998) | the outskirts of Gorbatov, Pavlovsky District | exterior location scenes[1] |
| "The Barber of Siberia" (1998) | the Schelokovsky Khutor open-air museum, Nizhny Novgorod | final scenes in a specially constructed village[1] |
| "Burnt by the Sun 2: Exodus" (2010) | the village of Polyany, Pavlovsky District | military scenes in a reconstructed Belarusian village[1] |
| "Burnt by the Sun 2: Citadel" (2011) | the outskirts of the village of Nizkovo, Pavlovsky District | the storming of a fortress; the set was partially destroyed in the finale[1] |
The Estate near Shchepachikha
The estate stands beside the village of Shchepachikha in Pavlovsky District, on the shore of Lake Iskra; it is about a two-hour drive from Nizhny Novgorod.[2][3] In addition to the manor house, the estate includes a church, a bathhouse, two guest izbas (traditional wooden houses), a guardhouse, a servants' dining hall, two stables, a garage, and a small pier on the lake.[2]
Local accounts hold that the region's then-leadership transferred to the director an overgrown hunting estate of 37,000 hectares; no documentary evidence for this account exists.[2]
Mikhalkov built the church in 2010; Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas George came to consecrate it. The church is dedicated to the holy martyr Tryphon, patron saint of hunters.[2]
The director helped the village get a gas supply and repaired its road, gave money to fire victims, and paid for a local child's surgery; before the pandemic the church was open to all visitors.[2]
On 21 October 2010, the investment council under the regional governor approved two applications from Mikhalkov to reclassify his plots near Shchepachikha from agricultural land to settlement land: 54,000 square metres for individual residential construction, and 83,800 square metres for recreational use. Deputy Governor Dmitry Svatkovsky announced the decision to journalists.[9]
In official lists of populated places the village is named Shchepachikha; the spelling Shchipachikha also appears in the press.[1][2]
Neighbouring villages are fighting to get gas. We had it connected long ago. Nikita Sergeyevich is a very good man. Before the pandemic he let everyone into his church.
The Dispute over the Tumboтinsky Nature Reserve
In early autumn 2020, the civic movement "Nizhny Novgorod Eco-Patrol" posted a video about logging in the Tumbotinsky nature reserve and linked it to the director's businesses: activists pointed out that logging was taking place on plots leased by his company for 49 years, that Mikhalkov was the sole owner of Tyomino-Pavlovskoye LLC, and that the timber, in their view, was being used for furniture manufacturing.[4][3]
The Nizhny Novgorod Region Department of Forestry responded that the plot of 28,664.9 hectares had been leased by Tyomino-Lesnoye LLC as far back as 2009, with the right to harvest 25,400 cubic meters of timber per year; that the nature reserve's regulations permit only selective cutting, sanitary felling, and thinning, while clear-cutting is neither planned nor carried out there.[3]
The department attributed the "balding" patches of forest to fires — five major blazes had occurred in the area over three years. According to the agency, over eleven years of the lease the company had felled 622.1 hectares while carrying out restoration work on 1,161.6 hectares.[3]
In November 2020, Mikhalkov demanded that those who posted the video be identified and punished; police opened a criminal case for defamation.[10]
Timber harvesting on the territory of the nature reserve is carried out in compliance with the protection regime established by the Reserve's Regulations, which permits exclusively selective felling, sanitary felling, and forest-thinning operations. Clear-cutting on the territory of the nature reserve is neither planned nor carried out.
On the Nizhny Novgorod Screen
In July 2025, Mikhalkov made an unexpected public appearance in Nizhny Novgorod at the ninth Gorky Fest festival of new Russian cinema, dedicated to the centenary of Battleship Potemkin and the cinematic avant-garde.[11]
The occasion was a screening of Vera Vodynski's documentary Nikita Mikhalkov. The Method, shot over three years: the film shows the director at work with actors from the Masterskaya 12 theatre on productions based on Bunin and Brecht.[11] Taking the stage before the screening, Mikhalkov said he found himself "in an unusual role."[11]
Sources
- nn.aif.ru — "Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod", May 31, 2026 — Lights, camera, action! Where filmmakers love to shoot in Central Russia (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — "Nizhegorodskaya Pravda" / Novoe Delo No. 43, October 29, 2020 — Evgeniy Kruglov. A place of one's own: how our journalist tried to visit Nikita Mikhalkov (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — "Nizhegorodskaya Pravda" / Novoe Delo No. 40, October 8, 2020 — Svetlana Lyovkina. Nizhny Novgorod environmentalists accuse Nikita Mikhalkov of illegal logging (archive)
- V gorode N — Yana Pokrovskaya. Nikita Mikhalkov accused of logging in the Pavlovo forests (archive)
- domkino.tv — "Dom Kino" television channel, September 25, 2020 — Interesting facts about the "Burnt by the Sun" trilogy (archive)
- RIA Novosti — April 9, 2023 — The French connection: how Mikhalkov created the Oscar-winning "Burnt by the Sun" (archive)
- trite.ru — Nikita Mikhalkov's TRITE Studio — Interesting facts about the film "Burnt by the Sun" (archived page from 2012)
- RIA Novosti — June 18, 2007 — Chkalov's dacha may become a filming location for "Burnt by the Sun 2"
- Interfax — Mikhalkov received the right to build on his estate in Nizhny Novgorod Region as a gift
- Lenta.ru — Nikita Mikhalkov took offense at environmentalists' video and filed a police complaint (archive)
- ng.ru — "Nezavisimaya Gazeta", July 20, 2025 — On the films and personalities of the "Gorky Fest" new Russian cinema festival (archive)