Bacardia is the land of Prince Florizel

Bacardia is a country known to the domestic audience for the adventurous film detective "The Adventures of Prince Florizel", created at the Lenfilm studio based on the works of Robert Lewis Stevenson "Almaz Raji" and "Suicide Club".

Plot. String

The young ruler of the distant European country of Bacardia, Prince Florizel (Oleg Dal), suffers from boredom, a disease typical of many well-to-do people. He was fed up with death and receptions, and balls, and social life. In an attempt to escape from it, he decides incognito to live in England, far from his homeland called Bacardia. This country is uniquely European and "dwarfish".

In Britain only a few faithful servants go with the prince. Even outwardly the prince is no different from ordinary citizens. Together with his close friend and adviser, Colonel Geraldin (Igor Dmitriev), the young ruler often makes promenades through the streets of London. One day they meet a strange man, a potential suicide, who, hanging a stone around his neck, is going to settle his life by jumping into the river. Bacardia is a country where you rarely see such things, so they stop the unfortunate and ask about the reasons for such an act.

Circle of interests. Intrigue

The unsuccessful suicide is the desperate free artist Perkins (Askhab Abakarov). He brings to the attention of Florizel and Geraldine the story of the mysterious "Club of Suicides" led by an ominous and mysterious figure - the Chairman (Donatas Banionis). According to Perkinson, paying an entrance fee of 40 pounds, anyone can become a member of the club and has the opportunity to go to the light of another "as a true gentleman." Learning about the activities of such a strange "circle of interests", the prince, feeling unkind, instantly forgets about his melancholy and intends to exert a lot of effort to bring the president's whistle to the surface. Bacardia - a country in which responsive and conscious citizens live, crowned people - is no exception.

The creators of the film and the participants in the filming

The three-part film "The Adventures of a Titled Person, or Suicide Club" was created in 1979 in two versions: for television shows and for cinemas. Directed by Eugene Tatarsky and scriptwriter Edgar Dubrovsky, they were able to masterfully combine in their film the stories of two famous stories of Stevenson in an exciting detective story with an adventurous story. Their efforts, coupled with the work of costumers, decorators, and participation in the filming of the leading stars of the Soviet film industry, such as Oleg Dal, Mikhail Pugovkin, Donatas Banionis, Elena Solovey, Igor Dmitriev, Yevgeny Kindinov, Lyubov Polishchuk, Vladimir Shevelkov, Vladimir Basov And Elena Tsyplakova, provided the film with the increased interest and love of the viewer. After viewing, each conscious philistine was in some embarrassment. It was clear to everyone that Bacardia was a country. Where is this state - that's what interested the curious.

Atmosphere as the main virtue

For many compatriots, the adaptation of the works of Stevenson was the first truly adventure movie. The viewer of that era was quite demanding, so the set of Hollywood aphorisms and banal mordoboy would definitely not suit him. In addition to action scenes, he needed a convoluted intrigue and an intellectual lining in strict accordance with the ideological coloring of the world outlook.

The 1979 film referred to above met all of the above criteria. Although it was rather difficult to say something new about Victorian Britain after Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, Stephenson and Tatarsky perfectly solved this problem. The viewer looks at what is happening with the eyes of the crowned person. And all the narrative of the picture is sustained in a single style - the tone of that era - a period that is familiar to the man in the street (besides Jack the Ripper) by A. Crowley with the "Satanic Bible" and by T. Quincy with his "Confession of an Englishman who smoked opium". The only thing that confused the Soviet audience is Bacardia. The country is, of course, fictional, but many people after watching the film repeatedly flipped through the atlas in a desperate attempt to find it on the world map.

Analysis of information received

If you try to analyze the information available in the narrative narrative about a mysterious country, you can try to speculate about the geopolitical and geographical position of the birthplace of Prince Florizel. If we compare the date of arrival of a titled person to London (1885) and his name, similar to the French one, then we can assume that this is Burgundy (hardly survived between the Holy Empire and Louis IX) or Belgium. On the other hand, Bacardia is a country whose geographic location is similar to South Germany - Baden. According to all the statements of both the main character and his retinue, one can conclude: it is located between France, Italy and Germany, well, just monarchical Switzerland. That's how the viewer is lost in conjecture already for many decades after the release of this film.