“Catherine. Favorites”: love and power

Filming of the new fourth season of the popular film saga dedicated to the fate of the great empress has begun in Moscow for the Rossiya TV channel. “Catherine. Favorites” is a continuation of the story about the reign and personal drama of the most powerful and independent woman on the Russian throne. In the role of Catherine – Marina Alexandrova.

1779. Empress Catherine II (Marina Alexandrova) is at the peak of her greatness. In Europe, she is already called “Great” at the suggestion of the influential Princess Dashkova (Anna Kovalchuk), who later returns to Russia and becomes the closest associate of the Empress. His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin (Vladimir Yaglych), the former favorite, the married husband of Catherine, remains her faithful companion and, in fact, the second person in the state. However, the personal life of the Empress, as before, is full of passions and love affairs. From now on, under the strict guidance of Potemkin, Catherine’s new favorites now and then replace each other. And one of them, Alexander Lanskoy (Sergey Novosad), becomes her true love. But fate has prepared new trials for the Empress… Despite the fact that her heart is broken, Catherine does not forget about large-scale state plans. Among them is the manifesto of succession to the throne. The Empress decides to pass the throne to her grandson Alexander, bypassing the legitimate heir – her son Pavel (Pavel Tabakov). But Paul is not going to give up his rights and will fight to the end! A new power struggle begins…

The director of the new season of the serial saga “Catherine” was Dmitry Petrun (“Officers’ Wives”, “Torgsin”). Many new historical characters will appear in the film: a friend and associate of the Empress Ekaterina Dashkova (Anna Kovalchuk), Catherine’s opponents: Count Alexander Stroganov (Dmitry Astrakhan) and the largest book publisher Nikolai Novikov (Aleksey Kolgan), favorites of the Empress: Alexander Lanskoy (Sergei Novosad), Ivan Korsakov (Stanislav Tikunov), Alexander Mamonov (Dmitry Gudochkin).

Marina Aleksandrova: “We started filming the first season of the film saga about Catherine 8 years ago, when my son was one and a half years old. And so we started working on the fourth season. Without the success of the audience, the history of the series would not have turned out so long! And of course, I really appreciate the recognition of the audience and I am grateful to them for the love that I received thanks to this role. My heroine occupies a special place not only in my creative biography, but also in life in general. Ekaterina teaches me a lot: spying on her, I take a lot for myself, but I reject something in my life. But this woman is certainly worthy of the attention of descendants, she did not go down in history as Catherine the Great in vain. And it is worth telling and reminding the viewer about her many great deeds!

Directed by Dmitry Petrun: “The new season tells about the last years of Catherine’s reign. Our story is dedicated to the ups and downs of love, the romantic loves of this great woman and her bold state decisions. We tried to preserve real facts related to historical characters. If our film causes discussion, that’s good. After all, our task is to excite the viewer, to enter into a dialogue with him. We even want to be criticized, corrected, and praised for something – and, of course, we hope to captivate the viewer! Large-scale shooting of the new season will cover all seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn. I hope everything goes according to plan!”

Shooting of the serial film “Ekaterina. Favorites” are planned in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Crimea and Belarus. Premiere of the historical drama “Catherine. Favorites” will take place on the TV channel “Russia”.

Inna Shkarbanova.

Pictured: footage from the set