8 First Dates

2012 film by David Dodson and Aleksandr Malyarevsky

Ekaterina Gordetskaya
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Andrey Radko
Sergey Shefir
Boris Shefir

Starring

Oksana Akinshina
Volodymyr Zelenskyy

CinematographyBruce Allan GreenEdited byDavid DodsonMusic byBryan Carr

Production
companies

Central Partnership
Kvartal-95 Studio
Production Center GORAD

Release date

March 8, 2012 (2012-03-08) (Russia)

Running time

83 minutesCountriesRussia, UkraineLanguageRussianBudget$2.3 millionBox office$7 456 577 ^[1]

8 First Dates (Russian: 8 первых свиданий, romanized: 8 pervykh svidaniy; Ukrainian: 8 перших побачень, romanized: 8 pershykh pobachen') is a 2012 Russian-Ukrainian^[2]^[3] romantic comedy directed by David Dodson and Aleksandr Malyarevsky.^[4] It stars Oksana Akinshina and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.^[5]

Plot

Vera and Nikita do not know each other, and the only thing they have in common is the fact that they chose the same place to celebrate their success in their personal lives. Vera is a successful TV presenter of her own talk show and is about to get married, her significant other is Konstantin, a famous tennis player. Nikita is a veterinarian high in demand, who made a marriage proposal to Ilona, a plastic surgeon. Everything is going well for them, they are happy, their friends support their choice, but everything changes one morning when Vera and Nikita wake up in the same bed. Deciding that this is a result of wild fun, they run away in different directions, hoping to forget everything as a bad dream.

But the next morning everything repeats, they wake up again in the same bed, in the same Dream House, although each of them knows for sure that they fell asleep at home. This continues for several more days. Some mysterious forces all the time bring them together, ruining their privacy, or perhaps indicating that they are made for each other.

Cast

Oksana Akinshina as Vera Kazantseva
Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Nikita Sokolov^[6]
Ekaterina Varnava as Ilona
Denis Nikiforov as Konstantin
Olesya Zheleznyak as Zinaida Ivanovna, manager
Yevgeny Koshevoy as taxi driver
Svetlana Khodchenkova as passenger in a taxi
Victor Vasilyev as Alexey
Soso Pavliashvili as cameo (singer at the festival)
Gorod 312 as cameo
Kostya Nakonechny as Kolya
Igor Jijikine as Kolya's father
Yelena Kondulainen as Vera's mother

Awards

In 2013, the film received the Russian National Movie Awards as the Best Russian Comedy of the Year.^[7]

Controversy

In 2020, this movie was banned by Ukraine's Cinema Agency because one of its actresses in its prequel, Yekaterina Varnava, visited Crimea during the Russian occupation to attend a comedy show in 2016. She was then blacklisted for five years.^[8]

References

^ "8 первых свиданий". Kinobusiness.
^ "Кино | "Студия Квартал-95"". 2012-05-09. Archived from the original on 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
^ "Ukraine Bans Movies Starring Zelenskiy, Seagal, Depardieu Over National Security Concerns". The Moscow Times. 2020-02-19. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
^ Valentin Trayansky (October 2020). Игроки. Фигуры. Пешки. Секреты великих людей. ISBN 9785041199807.
^ "8 первых свиданий". VokrugTV.
^ "Владимир Зеленский: Животные и дети ничего не прощают". KinoPoisk.
^ "Церемония награждения "Жорж 2013"". national-movie-awards.ru. Archived from the original on 2023-03-26. Retrieved 2019-02-10.
^ "Ukraine Bans Zelenskiy Film Over Inclusion Of Russian Co-Star". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 3 July 2023.