Going Vertical

Principal photography began in August 2016, in Moscow.[3]

The last scenes of the film - the scenes of the final match of the 1972 Olympic Games basketball tournament, between the USSR and the US national teams - were filmed in the first filming days.[4] Instead of filming a crowd of fans, advertising, and other attributes of the Munich match, the shooting technique used the "chromakey" technology.

In May 2017, a movie teaser trailer was released. The first trailer was released on June 14th.[9].

According to the United Federal Automated Information System on Movie Screenings in Cinema Halls (UAIS), the gross of the film, as of 2018, amounted to more than ₽2.9 billion[10] ($54 million), making the picture the higgest-grossing film in the history of modern Russian film distribution (post-Soviet era).[11][12][13][14] However, due to devaluation of Russian ruble against the US dollar in 2018 the final value of Russian box office after 43 weeks of distribution was only around $46.5 million.[2]

It also became the highest-grossing Russian film in China, where it grossed $13.2 million.[2][15] That brought the film's worldwide gross to $60 million.

Even before the release of the film, it aroused sharp criticism from Evgenia Kondrashina and Aleksandra Ovchinnikova (widows of Vladimir Kondrashin and Alexander Belov), and Yuri Kondrashin (son of Vladimir Petrovich). In their opinion, the authors of the film plunged into their private lives, and included information about it in the script without their consent.[16][17]

On April 19, 2017, the mother and son of Kondrashina and Ovchinnikov filed against Studio "Three T Productions" by Nikita Mikhalkov in the Presnensky District Court of Moscow the claim “On the prohibition of the dissemination of information about private life”, which the plaintiffs were refused in satisfaction of by a court decision of September 4, 2017 (due to the fact that during the consideration of the case the defendant made changes to the scenario taking into account the circumstances set forth in the statement of claim).[18]

On January 10, 2018, in an interview with RBC media holding, Going Vertical, the director Anton Megerdichev said that he talked several times with Kondrashina and Ovchinnikova and after talking with them he had the feeling that they understood each other, but at the same time time, he got the impression that they "agreed on something". Megerdichev also said that he treats the characters of the film with “such respect as one can imagine,” and also said the following: “Not a single person who did the Going Vertical intended to offend and insult ... And, on the contrary, elevate and make the heroes of the team, and they went all the way to the last to find some kind of contact [with relatives]”.[19]

On January 25, 2018, Kondrashina and Ovchinnikova in an interview with Rosbalt confirmed that they had met with the creators of the tape. However, according to Ovchinnikova, the relatives initially answered them that they were against the approval of this scenario: “Tears? Emotions? They have achieved this. But there is no historical truth there”, said Ovchinnikova.[20]

On January 6, 2018, the film received the Golden Quarter movie award from the site of the independent film magazine 25th Frame in the 2017 Best Russian Film nomination.

On February 15, 2018, at the Chart Dozen Award ceremony, the creators and actors of the film Going Vertical received an award in the special upcoming movement Upward from the hands of the Hero of Russia cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky.

On January 27, 2019, the film won the Golden Eagle Award for 2018 in the nominations for Best Actor in a Movie, Vladimir Mashkov, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Kirill Zaitsev (ru), Best Cinematography Igor Grinyakin (ru), Best Film Editing (Petr Zelenov, Anton Megerdichev, Vazgen Kahramanyan), “The Best Work of the Sound Engineer” Aleksey Samodelko, “The Best Visual Effects” (CGF Studio).