Vintage cars from the film “Battle of Engines” go on display at Moskino Cinema Park

Two vintage cars that appeared in the film “Battle of Engines” are now on display at the Vadim Zadorozhny Automotive Film Exhibition at Moskino Cinema Park, which is overseen by the Moscow Department of Culture. The Russo-Balt and Blitzen Benz cars were provided for display following the film’s nationwide theatrical release on October 8, 2026. The exhibition also features authentic accessories associated with the history of the legendary early 20 th-century Russo-Balt.

Visitors can learn about the history of the Russo-Balt automobile and its victory in a prestigious international competition originally known as Rallye Automobile Monaco (Monaco Rally). The competition was first held in 1911 and later became known as Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo (Monte Carlo Rally).

Two editions of the book “Russo-Baltic: The Legendary Automobile” are available at the gift shop. The book explores the history of the Russo-Balt, the life and career of Andrei Nagel, the car’s creator, its victories in automobile rallies and the “snow motors” developed by French engineer, mechanic and inventor Adolphe Kégresse.

The Vadim Zadorozhny Automotive Film Exhibition presents creative projects dedicated to the history of Russian cinema at Moskino Cinema Park. The new display will introduce visitors to another aspect of filmmaking history.

Admission requires both a ticket to the film park and a separate ticket to the automotive film exhibition. The exhibition follows Moskino Cinema Park’s opening hours.

Battle of Engines

The feature-length historical adventure film “Battle of Engines” was produced by Central Partnership, Kinoslovo and Nikita Mikhalkov’s TriTe Studio in partnership with Gazprom-Media Holding, with support from the Cinema Fund. The film was produced by Pyotr Anurov, Vadim Vereshchagin, Leonid Vereshchagin, Nikita Mikhalkov, Grigory Stoyalov, and Danil Badreyev.

Set in 1908, the story follows automobile enthusiast Andrei Nagel and engineer Dmitry Bondarev as they assemble a team of like-minded individuals and begin developing Russia’s first mass-produced automobile, the Russo-Balt. Competing in the Monaco Rally is not only a test of their abilities but also an opportunity to prove that Russian engineers and manufacturers can compete with European automobile companies.

Filming process

Work on the project took place at XOVP, a virtual production studio based at the Moskino Film Factory. Its specialists created virtual locations and prepared materials for the virtual production of selected scenes. During preproduction, the studio team also developed scenes, filmed background footage, prepared visual references, tested cameras and tested the integration of the car into the virtual environment.

Most of the virtual scenes were created using the Unreal Engine game engine. They included two scenes at a racetrack — Lydia’s daytime training session and a night-time test of the Ogurets car — a circuit race in Lyuban featuring individual turns along the route, a motorway from St. Petersburg with Lydia and Nagel driving past lakes at night, a coastal road and a bridge near a waterfall in Risan, among others.

Footage shot specifically for the project using the Russian Plates solution was also used as background material. The production workflow combined virtual locations with pre-recorded background footage to film car manoeuvres in a virtual production environment.

Filming also involved simulated moonlight, a powerful wind machine blowing dust and sand made from crushed walnut shells, a drip system to simulate rain, a smoke machine and a hazer, a device that creates atmospheric haze. The wind machines were positioned at the height of the car’s windshield.

In 2026, the Moskino Film Commission also helped organize and conduct promotional filming for “Battle of Engines” at locations across Moscow, including Novy Arbat, near the Oktyabr Cinema and in the Malaya Bronnaya Street area. Comprehensive support was provided at several stages, from positioning picture vehicles and technical vehicles at city locations to arranging complex driving sequences involving municipal and federal agencies.

The filming route ran along the Garden Ring and through the Vorobyovy Gory area. In addition, a picture car was positioned in areas partially occupying traffic islands near Universitetskaya Square and Zubovsky Boulevard.

Box office receipts for “Battle of Engines”, starring Yury Borisov and Ivan Yankovsky, exceeded 710 million roubles. The film reached this milestone in its third week of theatrical release. It consistently topped the Russian box office, outperforming other new releases.

Moskino Cinema Park

The Moskino Cinema Park is part of Sergei Sobyanin’s project Moscow as a Cinema City and the Moscow film cluster, which is being developed by the Moscow Department of Culture. The park has eight filming pavilions and 74 outdoor and interior sets, including “Brest Fortress”, “Provincial European Towns”, “Yuzovka”, “Shakhty”, “European City”, “Modern Moscow”, “Reichstag”, “Russian Medieval City”, “Eastern Europe Cities” and other sites.

Developed by the Moscow Government under the Moscow as a Cinema City project, the Moscow Film Cluster provides film producers with a variety of infrastructure facilities, services and tools. Its structure includes the Moskino Cinema Park, the Gorky Film Studio (with sites on Sergei Eisenstein Street and Valdaisky Proyezd), the Moskino Film Factory, the Moskino chain of cinemas, the Moskino Film Commission and the Moscow Film Platform.