December 27, 2006 - 14:06 AMT
Monument to "Mimino" Heroes to Be Erected in Moscow
A monument to the heroes of legendary "Mimino" - Valiko Mizandari (Vakhtang Kikabizde), Rubik Khachikyan (Frunzik Mkrtchyan) and Volokhov (Yevgeny Leonov) will be inaugurated in Moscow next year. The monument is dated to the 30th anniversary of the film shot by director Georgy Daneliya. Yesterday the Committee on Culture at the Moscow State Duma approved the initiative and an appropriate project will be drawn in the near future. The monument is likely to be erected in the district of Chistye Prudy where the film was shot and where Daneliya lives at present. Territories adjacent to Georgian streets in the center of Moscow and the former hotel of Russia, where the heroes met, are considered as an alternative. A contest for the best monument model will be announced.

In the words of Yevgeny Gerasimov, the chairman of the Committee on Culture at the Moscow State Duma, "the monument should convey warmness and good mood like the film itself." Vakhtang Kikabizde approved the idea. People's actress Marina Dyuzheva, who acted as Mizandari's young defender in the court, said "the bronze trio will become a hymn to warm human relations," reports IA Regnum.