A chess prodigy hustles Moscow's mafia—what could go wrong in 90s Russia?
He is overly intelligent... He is genius... And he's just trying to make his life a little bit better in an new era post-communist Russia.
Acting
Abdulov's charismatic genius you can't help rooting for
Production
Authentic 1991 Moscow chaos, shot on location
Writing
Sharp chess metaphors masking social commentary
Director
Viktor Sergeev
Aleksandr Abdulov
Сергей Ненашев - «Папа»
Larisa Belogurova
Настя Смирнова
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy
Гиля - главарь мафии «Принц»
Yuriy Kuznetsov
Андрей Сергеевич Кузьмин - майор
Anatoliy Kuznetsov
Валентин Смирнов - отец Насти
Valentina Talyzina
Смирнова - мать Насти
Sergei Prokhanov
Костик
Algis Matulionis
Уваров - подполковник
Viktor Ilichyov
Макар
Viktor Smirnov
Баев
Georgi Martirosyan
«Мармон»
Lev Lemke
Натансон - профессор
Mikhail Morozov
Фёдор Култаков
Nina Antonova
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during the actual 1991 Soviet coup attempt—some background chaos is documentary footage of history unfolding.
Abdulov based his performance on real Odessa con artists who used chess hustles to survive the '90s economic freefall. His character's final choice to reject brilliance mirrors Russia's own identity crisis.
SU
