Pre-production The novel
Text (
ru) by Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of the
Metro book trilogy, was released in 2017 and was later translated into more than 20 languages. Within a week of the release of the book, Glukhovsky received about ten offers of a film adaptation, including from
Alexander Rodnyansky and
Timur Bekmambetov, who wanted to make a film in the screenlife genre. Offers also came from the United States, Italy and South Korea. On October 21, 2019, Glukhovsky said that in parallel with the Russian company, the rights to the film adaptation were bought by a film company from the United States.
Filming At the start of filming, Dmitry Glukhovsky offered director Klim Shipenko a script of
Text that he already had, to which the director asked for some adjustments. Due to a busy travel schedule, Glukhovsky managed to visit the film set just a few times. He repeatedly met with the director and talked with the actors about their roles and also played a
cameo role as a metro passenger in the film.
Principal photography took place in January - March 2019. Instead of
Lobnya, the town of
Dzerzhinsky, Moscow Oblast was used for filming, also shooting took place in
Moscow and the
Maldives. Filming in the Goryunov apartment took place in an ordinary residential building. The scene in the sewer was filmed in a real sewer in
Troparyovo-Nikulino District at a depth of about 10 meters. Scenes in the underground railway took place in the Moscow metro having negotiated official permission.
Kristina Asmus also plays her heroine Nina in the eponymous production of the
Yermolova Theatre. Scenes on the streets, in the metro and on trains were shot without blocking off the area to ordinary passers-by and passengers - with the help of a half-hidden camera placed in an animal carrier. Asked about his explicit sex scene with
Kristina Asmus,
Ivan Yankovsky said: "Yeah, we shot the footage ourselves. We drank wine, we clinked glasses, and started shooting. And it's always very funny. Because the director says to you, 'Come on!' and goes out the door to drink tea. And here you are, and she's here, and you have to shoot it all. And it's like she has a husband, out there in life, and he'll see everything. It's kind of creepy, really. But I understood: either you have to believe in it, or it makes no sense to do it."
Music Basta (rapper), having watched
Text, wrote the song
It’s scary to live like this for the film, the director of the music video is Klim Shipenko.
Alexander Petrov appears in the video in the image of Ilya Goryunov and performs the verse.
Accolades The film
Text received several award nominations. ==Release==