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
Irina Apeksimova
Ирина Николаевна Аркадина
Aleksandr Metelkin
Константин Гаврилович Треплев
Aleksandr Rezalin
Петр Николаевич Сорин
Darya Avratinskaya
Нина Заречная
Sergey Veksler
Илья Афанасьевич Шамраев
Anastasiya Kolpikova
Полина Андреевна
Yuri Smirnov
Константин Треплев
Ekaterina Ryabushinskaya
Полина Андреевна
Galina Volodina
Маша
Yulia Kuvarzina
Маша
Sergey Trifonov
Евгений Сергеевич Дорн
Anton Anurov
Семён Семёнович Медведенко
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.
RU
