Four musicians, four pathologies, one terrifying secret — this isn't your grandma's chamber music.
Season 1 • Episode 1
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They are the most talented students of the provincial music school. There are four of them, they are a Quartet, and their common dream is to win an international music competition. But their life is not a series of lessons and rehearsals, their life is a constant struggle with their fears, manias and the world around them. Meet. First violin, Andrey is a kleptomaniac, unable to cope with his pernicious passion, which destroys his life. Polina, the second violinist, is madly devoted to music, and in order to maintain the instrument, buy Austrian strings and a dress in which even Schnittke would not be ashamed to play, works as a prostitute. Viola player Masha suffers from schizophrenia and believes that their Quartet is the embodiment of spirits from the fifth purple world. And the main character, cellist Nastya, lives under a false name and hides some terrible secret – and does not even know that a gang of thugs is following in her footsteps.
Direction
Melikyan's fairy-tale grotesque meets psychological realism.
Production
Crushing poverty dressed as opulence — every frame lies beautifully.
Acting
Bortich carries unspeakable weight with barely a twitch.
Creator
Anna Melikyan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Melikyan emerged from Russia's 'cinema of the absurd' tradition — this pilot was her first TV work, essentially a feature film disguised as series bait.
The Schnittke reference isn't random: his 'polystylism' mirrors the series' collision of high culture and gutter survival.
RU
