Your parents vanish in cursed woods. Your guide? A drunk uncle and two literature students. Good luck, Egor.
47 minSeason 2 • Episode 8
Latest19-year-old Egor Chudinov goes in search of his parents, who disappeared during an ethnographic expedition to the Perm Region. Together with his uncle Nikolai and two random fellow travelers — students of philology Tanya and Nadia - Egor moves deeper into the territory, which lives according to its own laws and traditions. There is a gloomy nature here, hermits live in forest dugouts, diseases are treated by sorcerers, and the cause of troubles is considered to be damage caused by witches, and somewhere among the dense forests a bear shaman wanders. At first, Egor is skeptical about the stories about ancient creatures of Komi-Permian mythology, but gradually realizes that the world is much wider than his ideas.
Cinematography
The forest IS the villain—shot like it's breathing down your neck
Production
Komi-Permian mythology researched with unsettling authenticity
Acting
Merzlikin's uncle Nikolai—cynicism masking genuine terror
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The series draws heavily from Komi-Permian shamanic traditions rarely depicted in Russian media, filmed on location in actual Perm Krai villages where these beliefs persist.
Gleb Kalyuzhny (Egor) reportedly refused to learn which scenes contained practical effects versus VFX, maintaining genuine uncertainty that bleeds through his performance.
RU
