In a large house in the middle of the steppes, the Shamanovs meet for a family gathering. When suddenly the eldest brother Victor appears after a 25 year absence, unspoken family conflicts come to light. Nobody suspects that Victor is escaping his dark past and that killers are looking for his hiding place.
Acting
Garmash and Stupka's volcanic father-son standoffs.
Cinematography
The steppe house as suffocating character.
Direction
Pogodin's merciless withholding of catharsis.
Director
Oleg Pogodin
Sergey Garmash
Viktor Shamanov
Bohdan Stupka
Grigoriy Shamanov
Yekaterina Rednikova
Natalya
Vladimir Yepifantsev
Pashka
Konstantin Adaev
Toska
Aleksandra Blednaya
Valentina
Ivan Dobronravov
Andrey
Eduard Flerov
vet
Larisa Malevannaya
Nadezhda Petrovna
Aleksandr Nazarov
Boris
Gleb Podgorodinsky
Igor
Kirill Poluhin
Elder
Pyotr Zaychenko
Aleksey
Igor Savochkin
Dmitriy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pogodin explicitly wanted to explode the Russian 'domestic drama' tradition by importing thriller mechanics—think Chekhov's gun, but it's an actual arsenal.
The steppe setting evokes the 'wild field' (dikoye pole) of Russian history—lawless borderlands where family becomes both sanctuary and prison.
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