• The play and the film are based on the real story of the family of Vasily and Nadezhda Kuzyakin, who lived in the homeland of the author of the script of the film Vladimir Gurkin — in the city of
Cheremkhovo (
Irkutsk region). The prototypes of Mitya and Shura were Gurkin's grandparents. •
Vladimir Menshov saw the play quite by accident. When Nina Doroshina was playing the role of Nadya in the
Sovremennik theatre, he decided to make a movie. • Shura – Natalya Tenyakova and Mitya -
Sergei Yursky are husband and wife in real life. • Alexander Mikhailov initially refused the role.
Nikolai Lavrov, Boris Morchkov,
Viktor Bortsov and Sergey Yursky, who was later approved for the role of Uncle Mitya, also auditioned for the role of Vasily Kuzyakin. • Lyubov Polishchuk unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Nadia, and Natalia Kustinskaya's sample was rejected by the artistic expert board. • The role of Raisa Zakharovna was first offered to Tatiana Doronina (refused), then to
Olga Yakovleva,
Vera Alentova also auditioned. • In the script Nadya is a middle-aged woman and Shura is an old, retired woman, whereas in real life Nina Doroshina who played Nadya is 10 years older than Natalya Tenyakova who played Shura in the film. At the time of filming Nina Doroshina was 50 years old and Natalya Tenyakova was 40. • The film was shot in the summer in
Karelia — on the outskirts of the city of
Medvezhyegorsk, in a house on the bank of the river Kumsa. A private house No. 12 on Nizhnyaya Street on the outskirts of the city, where the main scenes of the film were shot, was demolished after a fire in 2011, a cottage was built in its place, in 2018 the owner of the house restored a dovecote on the same place where the film was shot. • The shooting of the swimming episode of Raisa Zakharovna and Vasily was conducted in November in
Batumi and
Kobuleti (
Adjara,
Georgia). The water temperature was 14 degrees C. • During the filming of the episode when Vasily falls out of the door of his house into the sea, Alexander Mikhailov almost died. The actor fell from the pier in Kobuleti, divers undressed him under the water, and he surfaced next to Gurchenko already in his underpants. During filming underwater, the diver could not take off his tie for a long time; Mikhailov almost drowned, the tie had to be cut. • In the episode when Vasily secretly looks into the window of his house, the film "Moscow does not believe in tears", also shot by Vladimir Menshov, is on TV. • During the filming of the episode with the "blossoming tree", equipment for magic tricks was used — a cane from which flowers jump out. The magician invited to the shooting attached ten such canes to an ordinary tree, and although only seven of them worked at the same time, the shot was made on the first take. •
Eduard Uspensky wrote two songs for the film. One of them, "Burning Southern Tango", is performed in the movie by Sergei Menakhin. The second song, "Come home, men!" (music by Grigory Gladkov), was not included by the director in the film. • The episode in which Raisa Zakharovna and Vasily do exercises on trainers was filmed at the Zander Institute of Mechanotherapy in
Essentuki. • In 2011, a monument to the heroes of the film "Love and Doves" was erected in Cheremkhov (sculptor — Karim Mukhamadeev). ==Cast==