

Chekhov's haunted lake gets a body count in this delightfully unhinged Russian whodunit.
What if Konstantin Gavrilovich, from Anton Chekkov's famous play, did not commit suicide and was murdered instead? And who did it? Boris Akunin's take on The Seagull unfolds as a comedic murder mystery.
Acting
Apeksimova devours the scenery as the monstrous matriarch you can't look away from.
Writing
Akunin's script weaponizes Chekhovian motifs against themselves—savage and smart.
Production
The estate breathes: creaking floors, lake mist, the suffocation of good taste.

Director
Dainius Kazlauskas
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Boris Akunin is Russia's answer to Umberto Eco—he built his entire career on playful genre subversions of national literature. This is him at his most gleefully disrespectful.
The 2017 release timing matters: shot during renewed Russian state pressure on 'decadent' classical culture, the film's irreverence plays as quiet political resistance.