Frenzied Bus

Frenzied Bus
Soviet Union theatrical release poster
Directed by	Georgy Natanson
Written by	Nikolai Krivomazov Georgy Natanson David Markish
Produced by	Victor Freilich Victor Zolotarev
Starring	Ivars Kalniņš Igor Bochkin Anna Samokhina
Cinematography	Vadim Semenovykh
Music by	Eugen Doga
Production company	Gorky Film Studios
Distributed by	Gorky Film Studios (Soviet Union)
Release date	26 April 1990 (1990-04-26)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Frenzied Bus (Russian: Взбесившийся автобус, romanized: Vzbesivshiysya avtobus) is a 1990 Soviet crime film. The story is based on real events that occurred on 1 December 1988, when there was a hijacking of a bus with children in Ordzhonikidze.

Plot

The events occurred in Ordzhonikidze in 1988 and this is when the movie took place. In the film, criminals hijack a passenger bus from the city bus station. The criminals see a group of school children waiting for a bus after a field trip, and they invite them onto the bus and then take the children and their teacher hostage.

Meanwhile, police radio communications report the hijacking of the bus (without knowledge of the hostage-takers). The bus is spotted by local KGB officers, who heard the news on the radio of his official car ATC communications. The bus leaves the square in front of the local executive committee and the criminals open fire from the broken window on the door of the bus. The bus driver is seriously wounded.

Cast

• Ivars Kalniņš as Colonel Valentin Orlov (voiced by Sergei Malishevsky)
• Igor Bochkin as Pavel Melkoyants, terrorist ringleader
• Anna Samokhina as Tamara Fotaki, Pavel's wife
• Anna Tikhonova as teacher
• Amayak Akopyan as Zhila, terrorist
• Igor Kashintsev as Major General
• Emmanuil Vitorgan as Mr. Anouk, a member of the Israeli Foreign Ministry
• Boris Shcherbakov as Boris Vasilievich, a member of the USSR Foreign Ministry
• Alexander Kuznetsov as flight engineer
• Aristarkh Livanov as Viktor, Soviet Ambassador in Pakistan
• Pyotr Shcherbakov as pilot

Filming

The first half of the film (including scenes of the taking of child hostages) was shot on location in Vladikavkaz, where the actual events took place, for 26 days. It was planned that the shooting of some scenes would take place in Israel, but instead the director had to use Moscow for Tel Aviv locations. The scenes of the Israeli Foreign Ministry were filmed at the Hotel Russia, whereas Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport stood in for Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

External links

• Frenzied Bus at IMDb