Sergey Garmash dreamed to participate in any Nikita Mikhalkov's movie for a long time. He literally begged the director to give him a role in his movie. One morning Mikhalkov called him and asked "Do you go to church". Garmash said "Yes". Mikhalkov then asked "Do you pray a lot?". Garmash said "Yes". Mikhalkov then said "Your prayers have been heard! The script is on the way".
The surgeon defends the south by naming several great artists from there. "Shota Rustaveli" was a 12th Century Georgian poet. "Pirosmani" (the more common name of Niko Pirosmanashvili, 1862 - 1918) was a Georgian primitivist painter. "Sergei Paradjanov" (also spelled Sergei Parajanov) (1924 -1990) was an Armenian film director and artist. "Danelia" is Georgiy Daneliya is a Georgian film director, known for his "sad comedies".
The character played by 'Yuri Stoyanov' (childish TV-producer, owner of a private TV chain in consort with his mother) is a caricature of 'Dmitri Lesnevski', ex-owner of the independent chain Ren-TV and producer of acclaimed Russian movies The Return (2003) (The Return, 2003) and The Banishment (2007). In 2003 "Vozvrashchenie" was awarded with the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival and nominated for Academy Award, therefore becoming the greatest international breakthrough of the Russian cinema since "Burnt by the Sun" by Mikhalkov.
"Ernest Emerson" is a manufacturer of knives from the USA. However their model, CQC7, is not like the knife on the film. Emerson knives are folding knives.
***In the United States, where Twelve Angry Men was set, generally juries in criminal cases must render their verdict unanimously, whether "guilty" or "not guilty"; this film follows the same premise. However, in Russia the jury must return a "not guilty" verdict if at least six jurors out of twelve vote "not guilty".
***One of the jurors in his reminiscences mentions a Lithuanian SS division. Lithuania was one of the few nations in Europe that did not create an SS division. [wikipedia]