Jean-Jacques Annaud

Was that one of your intentions -- to comment on the nature of the media through this film?

I would not have done this movie if it had not been about propaganda and the making of a hero. The Russians needed a hero and, instinctively, they picked one who was handsome. The reality is that there was a sniper who was better than Zaitsev, but he was not good-looking. And beauty sells.

Stalingrad was such a huge battle because of its name. It was not in the plans to capture that city. It was just on the way to the oil fields. One morning, Hitler saw the name "Stalin-grad" on the maps, and he said, "I'm going to get that city; it carries the name of my enemy. It'll be a coup!" When Stalin realized that Hitler was going to capture the city that carries his name, he said, "No way!" It became a battle for a name, a symbol, one that reached down all the way to these two guys in the movie. Two million people were going to die in that battle. Why were these two guys important? Because they were carrying the flag for their sides.

It's the same thing today when, on the same day that a ferry carrying hundreds of people sinks, Lady Diana dies in a car crash. The press doesn't lead with the ferry, it leads with Lady Diana, because we can identify with one person. That problem of identification and propaganda was at the center of my interest.

The legend of this duel between Vassili Zaitsev and Maj. König is accepted as gospel in Russia, but is there a possibility that what you represent as a true story is actually fiction?

It's difficult to tell. There was this excellent book recently by a friend of mine, Antony Beevor, "Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-43." In it he casts some doubt on the story. He doesn't say Zaitsev didn't exist or wasn't a hero, but he says the famous duel may have been propaganda. Everything else you read takes that duel for granted. In Volgograd, there's a big statue of Vassili Zaitsev. His rifle is exhibited there as a treasure, and in the Moscow museum, you have the scope from the rifle of Major König, with a note explaining the story. You have the old Vassili Zaitsev who, 10 years ago, stood in front of BBC cameras in Volgograd at the place he said he killed this German. He spent his whole life writing and doing interviews about this duel, which was at the epicenter of his fame. So it's difficult for me to say it's untrue. It's also difficult for me to guarantee that he has not been repeating propaganda. Like with Jesus Christ or Joan of Arc, who knows? Still, it's the most famous story of snipers ever told.

Was Rachel Weisz's character, Tania, a real part of that story or a plot device?

The character Rachel Weisz plays is described in the book "Enemy at the Gates." The author, William Craig, interviewed 200 survivors on the German side and 200 on the Russian side. One of those Russian survivors was Sgt. Tania Chernova, a member of that group of snipers under the leadership of Zaitsez. The reality is, she fell in love with him, as many other women fell in love with many other snipers.

Think of it, a million women were fighting with men on the front in Russia. So of course there were love affairs. There were so many excellent stories, especially when you mix that with the life expectancy being so short. In Stalingrad, for an ordinary soldier, the chances of living past one day were almost nil. It was three days for a corporal, 33 days for a general.

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