From 1976 to 1979, a team led by Vidugiris conducted a unique expedition aimed at finding a sunken city. During the research, traces of a previously unknown civilization that existed 2,500 years ago were discovered.
Among the team members of "Kyrgyztelefilm" were Algimantas Vidugiris, Omurkul Borubaev, and Tynai Ibragimov. They conducted interviews with elders—the last witnesses—and carried out a series of underwater studies and aerial reconnaissance by helicopter along the northern and southern shores of Issyk-Kul, which allowed for the creation of the film "Report on the Legend."
The cartographic materials of the sunken city were handed over to scientists for further analysis.
Algimantas Stanislavovich (Stasevich) Vidugiris was born on June 21, 1936, in Kaunas, Lithuania, and passed away on June 25, 2010, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He was a Soviet and Kyrgyz film director, playwright, cameraman, and academic, as well as a researcher of Lake Issyk-Kul. Of Lithuanian nationality, he became a People's Artist of the Kyrgyz SSR in 1982. In 1962, he graduated from the cinematography faculty of VGIK.
Vidugiris's films have remained part of the curricula at VGIK for three decades and are also included in the courses of the journalism faculty at Lomonosov Moscow State University and in the programs of the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors and other educational institutions in the field of cinema and journalism.
