Returning to Saint Petersburg after a long exile, the dashing Yakovlev, a retired army officer, makes a comfortable living by winning other people's duels. An enigmatic, focused, and extremely skilled professional, he leaves a trail of dead bodies behind him as he swirls through polite society, frequently called upon to wield a pistol as a surrogate in duels at dawn. But when Yakovlev meets the naïve young Prince Tuchov and his beautiful sister, Princess Martha, the normally cold-hearted mercenary is surprised by hitherto undetected emotions. What transpires uncovers a series of revelations about his past and his present self.
Cinematography
Saint Petersburg as frozen, gilt-edged purgatory.
Practical Effects
Duels staged with brutal, balletic precision.
Costume
Uniforms so sharp they could cut you first.
Director
Aleksei Mizgiryov
Pyotr Fyodorov
Yakovlev
Vladimir Mashkov
Earl Beklemishev
Franziska Petri
Aleksandra Iosifovna
Martin Wuttke
German Baron
Sergey Garmash
One-armed nobleman
Yuri Kolokolnikov
Basargin
Aleksandr Yatsenko
Yakovlev Jr.
Yuriy Kuznetsov
Servant
Anton Kuznetsov
merchant, gunsmith
Dmitriy Kulichkov
Chichagov
Pavel Tabakov
Prince Tuchkov
Yuliya Khlynina
Marfa Tuchkova
Alexandr Mizev
officer-jailer
Petr Skvortsov
convict
Igor Khripunov
sekundant knyazya Reyna
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
19th-century Russian dueling codes were so formalized that professional substitutes like Yakovlev were documented phenomena among indebted nobles.
Pyotr Fyodorov trained with Olympic pistol coaches; the film's决斗 choreography deliberately violates cinematic gun-fu for historical accuracy.
RU
