The 'Urka' (Criminal) personage who stabbed Khanin and then later shot and killed by Ivan Lapshin played by not a professional actor, but by real criminal. Aleksey German made this decision to add more realism to these scenes.
Nikolay Gubenko auditioned for the role of Ivan Lapshin. Yet the director chose to work with Andrei Boltnev because "there was some sort of "doomed" quality about him - it was clear he'd be shot and killed".
This film was shot in the early 1980s, but was not released until the perestroika reforms because it took an ironic look at Soviet idealism.
Shot in 1983, this movie was released only in 1985.
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Top Gap
By what name was My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985) officially released in India in English?
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