A Rough Draft (russian: Черновик, Chernovik) is a 2018

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n science fiction film directed by

Sergey Mokritskiy Sergey Evgenievich Mokritskiy (, born February 18, 1961) is a Russian film director and cinematographer of Ukrainian origin. Filmography As director * ''The Four Ages of Love'' (2008) * ''Cherchill'' (2009) * ''Teacher's Day'' (2012) * ''Batt ...

, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by

Sergei Lukyanenko Sergei Vasilyevich Lukyanenko (russian: Серге́й Васи́льевич Лукья́ненко, ; born 11 April 1968) is a Russian science fiction and fantasy author, writing in Russian. His works often feature intense action-packed plots, ...

and starring Nikita Volkov, Yulia Peresild and

Yevgeny Tsyganov Yevgeny Eduardovich Tsyganov (russian: link=no, Евгений Эдуардович Цыганов; born 15 March 1979) is a Russian stage and film actor, director, screenwriter and composer. Early life Yevgeny Tsyganov was born in Moscow in th ...

. It was released in Russia on May 25, 2018.

Plot

A young resident of Moscow, Kirill is a talented designer of computer games. One day, he is completely erased from the memory of everyone he knew and loved. Kirill learns that he is chosen for an important and mysterious mission. His purpose is to become a customs officer between parallel worlds, of which there are dozens in the universe. Kirill learns to open the portals to a variety of parallel worlds which represent alternative versions of Moscow: a steampunk Imperial Russia, a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

tropic resort world, a dystopian

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

world, and a highly advanced

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...

n world. Over time, Kirill learns that our Earth is a rough draft, a setting for

social experiment A social experiment is a type of psychological or sociological research for testing people's reactions to certain situations or events. The experiment depends on a particular social approach where the main source of information is the point of v ...

s secretly staged by the government of the utopian world, in order to avoid our mistakes. Learning this, Kirill rebels against his supervisors.

Cast

* Nikita Volkov as Kirill Maksimov *

Yevgeny Tkachuk Yevgeni, Yevgeny, Yevgenii or Yevgeniy (russian: Евгений), also transliterated as Evgeni, Evgeny, Evgenii or Evgeniy, is the Russian form of the masculine given name Eugene. People with the name include: :''Note: Occasionally, a person may b ...

as Kotya Chagin * Olga Borovskaya as Anna * Yulia Peresild as Rose White *

Severija Janušauskaitė Severija Janušauskaitė (born 22 October 1981) is a Lithuanian stage and film actress, occasionally performing as a singer, composer, costume designer and fashion model. She is well known for her role in the drama film '' Star'' (2014), for whic ...

as Renata Ivanova *

as Anton *

Elena Yakovleva Elena Alexeevna Yakovleva (russian: Еле́на Алексе́евна Я́ковлева; born 5 March 1961) is a Soviet and Russian actress known for her roles in such films as ''Intergirl'' and ''Encore, Once More Encore!'' as well as for the ...

as Kirill's mother *

Andrey Rudensky Andrey Viktorovich Rudensky (russian: Андре́й Ви́кторович Руде́нский; born 26 January 1959) is a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor. Biography Andrey Rudensky was born in Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union ...

as Kirill's father *

Andrey Merzlikin Andrey Ilyich Merzlikin (russian: Андре́й Ильи́ч Мерзли́кин; born 24 March 1973) is a Russian film and theater actor. Early life Andrey Merzlikin was born in Kaliningrad, Moscow Oblast. In the first education – radio ...

as Felix *

Irina Khakamada Irina Mutsuovna Khakamada ( rus, Ири́на Муцу́овна Хакама́да, p=ɪˈrʲinə mʊˈtsuəvnə xəkɐˈmadə; ja, 袴田イリーナ; born April 13, 1955, in Moscow) is a Russian economist, political activist, journalist, pu ...

as Irina, politician *

as the train passenger

Critical reception

Although the film was one of the most anticipated Russian releases of 2018, it received generally negative reviews from professional critics, receiving 32% on

KinoPoisk Kinopoisk (russian: Кинопоиск, a portmanteau of "cinema" and "search") is a Russian online database of information related to films, TV shows including cast, production team, biographies, plot summaries, ratings, and reviews. Since 2018 ...

. The majority of criticism was focused on CGI, acting and an incomprehensible storyline. Critics also panned the film for its changes from the novel.Рецензии на фильм «Черновик» (2018)
/ref>Черновик (2018) — отзывы о фильме зрителей и критиков
/ref> Observer of

Kommersant ''Kommersant'' (russian: Коммерсантъ, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia ...

Mikhail Trofimenkov in his review notes that by multiplying the fantasy worlds above the necessary number, the authors doomed the film to madness of entropy. Equally helpless, in the opinion of the author, is the actor's work. Critic Alexey Lytovchenko ( Rossiyskaya Gazeta) wrote that in some places it is impossible to differentiate the characters and understand their motives. ''А Rough Draft'' underperformed in the box office.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rough Draft, A 2010s science fiction films Russian science fiction action films Films based on science fiction novels Films based on Russian novels Films set in Moscow Films shot in Moscow Films about parallel universes Columbia Pictures films