Plot synopsis

1949 Former front-line soldier and former investigator Sergei Gastev is moving away from investigative activities, faced with an unexpected problem of bureaucratic mutual assistance. Attempts to restore justice almost end in prison bars for him. Gastev decides to limit his activities to teaching Roman law at the university of a small regional town. In Sergei’s personal life, everything is not simple either: his affair with the city Komsomol leader Lyudmila Mishina has to be carefully hidden...
Suddenly, the city is rocked by a series of daring crimes. It was decided to recruit Gastev, as a very talented detective in the past, to reinforce the urgently convened headquarters for the fight against banditry. A young rural police officer, Ilya Ropnya, is given to help Sergei. However, while trying to solve one crime, the heroes unwittingly fall on the trail of another - a grandiose financial scam associated with Stalin's 70th anniversary. Gastev begins to suspect that his beloved woman, Lyudmila Mishina, is also involved in the scam. The more Gastev dives into the case, the clearer it becomes that the threads of the crime go to the very top, and mortal danger looms over the heroes...

Selected in the following festivals or events :

- Stalin in contemporary Russian cinema, (kinoglaz.fr), 2023