Grodno. The art object "The stroller from White Dew movie".

On a quiet Telman street in Grodno, passers-by are attracted by an unusual art object - a forged baby carriage. People rarely pass by her without stopping, and even more so without a photo. But this stroller is not just an urban decor. It witnessed one of the most recognizable scenes of Soviet cinema, shot in Grodno.

In the movie "White Dew" (1983), there is an episode that every viewer seems to remember. A baby carriage is rapidly rolling down steep Telman Street. Nikolai Karachentsov's hero, the cheerful and dashing Vasily Khodos, rushes after her, catches her at the last moment, looks inside and discovers... empty bottles. It is for this seemingly harmless act that he receives the notorious 15 days of administrative arrest. The scene became iconic not only because of the actor's charisma, but also because of the spirit of the times itself: a light hooligan story set against the backdrop of old Grodno sunk into the hearts of the audience.

By the way, few people know: in fact, the stroller in that episode was rolling down Ozheshko Street, but it was Telman who got into the frame - with her characteristic slope and old paving stones. Director Igor Dobrolyubov did not choose this location by chance: the steep descent perfectly created a sense of danger and dynamics. The actors joked that the wheelchair sometimes "ran away" faster than the cameramen had planned, and the scene was reshot several times.

The idea to install a commemorative wheelchair arose in 2018, when Grodno hosted the Festival of National Cultures. The city authorities, together with local historians and artists, decided to create a series of art objects dedicated to films shot in Grodno. The stroller was made by local blacksmiths - it is completely forged, with elegant curls, stylized as Soviet baby strollers of the 1980s.

Interestingly, when installing the object, they decided not just to put it on a pedestal, but to fix it directly on the paving stones in the place where, according to the memoirs of the old-timers, the wheelchair "flew by" in the film. Now it can be slightly shaken - a special mechanism creates the effect of live movement, but reliably keeps the structure from falling.

From the first day, the stroller became a hit among the townspeople and tourists. Newlyweds come here for wedding photos, parents put babies in it, and students act out whole scenes with "empty bottles" in their hands. It is especially crowded here on warm weekends: the queue of those who want to take pictures is literally from morning to evening.

Local guides have already come up with a whole ritual: if you rock the stroller and make a wish, it will definitely come true - the main thing is that there are no bottles in the stroller. It's a joke, but tourists are willing to believe and repeat.

In fact, the wheelchair on Telman is just one of many art objects that turn the center of Grodno into a real museum of Soviet cinema in the open air. The city has been featured in more than 50 films.:

· Vladimir Vysotsky's guitar is installed on one of the courtyards in memory of the fact that the poet starred in Grodno in the film "I come from childhood" (1966). By the way, this film was Vysotsky's first serious film work.

· The cage with the bird on the bench is also from "I come from childhood". A touching symbol of post-war childhood, installed near the old cinema.

· The hat from the painting "The Brunette for 30 kopecks" - in 1991, this detective film by Sergei Nikonenko was shot in Grodno courtyards.

· The wrought-iron armchair from the film "The Politburo Cooperative" is one of the most unusual objects, which was installed in 2022.

Grodno is not only about ancient castles and churches. It is a living setting where every stone preserves the history of cinema. A walk through Telman and the neighboring streets will take a couple of hours, but it will leave the feeling that you yourself have become part of the set. The wheelchair is her heart, the very anchor to which nostalgia clings and which invariably causes a smile.

Come and rock the stroller, and may your wish come true. Just don't put the bottles inside - and it might not be 15 days like in that movie, but you'll definitely ruin your mood!