''Azazel'' (russian: Азазель) is a Russian
made for TV
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
adaptation of
Boris Akunin
Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ ...
's introductory '
Erast Fandorin
Erast Petrovich Fandorin (russian: Эраст Петрович Фандорин) is a fictional 19th-century Russian detective and the hero of a series of Russian historical detective novels by Boris Akunin.
The first Fandorin novel (''The Winte ...
' novel ''
The Winter Queen''.
Plot summary
This historical detective story features a young police inspector, Erast Fandorin. Fandorin's adventures take place in the Russian Empire of the late 19th century, and he regularly finds himself at the center of key historical events, including development of Masonic and Revolutionary movements.
The hero is a young man, newly enlisted in the police force of the 1870s. This is a world with no forensic science, a rigid social structure and rigid proprieties, and police investigation techniques which respect the intuition of the intelligent amateur or newcomer. Fandorin is inexperienced, naive, downwardly mobile (the family fortune having evaporated), but cultured, intelligent, diligent, and desperately enthusiastic. He doesn't so much want to impress as want to succeed ... by a process of blind self-confidence and a youthful self-delusion that he is acting logically and scientifically. Fandorin is invited to investigate the suicide of a rich student. The young man has shot himself in public, but something seems strange about the suicide. Fandorin quickly exposes the murderous intrigue which has led to the death ... and opens up a can of worms which will have him crossing Europe in search of a mastermind ... or maybe even the godfathers behind a terrorist plot.
Cast
*Ilya Noskov –
Erast Petrovich Fandorin
*
Sergey Bezrukov
Sergey Vitalyevich Bezrukov (russian: link=no, Серге́й Вита́льевич Безру́ков, born 18 October 1973) is a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor, singer, People's Artist of Russia, the laureate of the State Prize of th ...
– Ivan Franzevich Brilling
*
Marina Aleksandrova – Elizaveta von Evert-Kolokoltseva
*
Oleg Basilashvili
Oleg Valerianovich Basilashvili (russian: Оле́г Валериа́нович Басилашви́ли; ka, ოლეგ ბასილაშვილი, ; born 26 September 1934) is a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist ...
– General Mizinov
*Sergei Chonishvili – Ippolit Alexandrovich Zurov
*
Marina Neyolova
Marina Mstislavovna Neyolova (russian: Мари́на Мстисла́вовна Неёлова; born 8 January 1947) is a Soviet and Russian stage and film actress. She has appeared in 37 films since 1969. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1987).
...
– Lady Esther
*Yuri Avsharov – Georg
*Felix Antipov – Xavery Feofilaktovich Grushin
*Larisa Borushko – Amalia Kazimirovna Bezhetskaya
*Dmitry Burkhankin – Kokorin
*Valentin Golubenko – Klaus
*
Yevgeni Grishkovetz – Achimas Velde
Remake
English-language version
Dutch film director
Paul Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven (; born 18 July 1938) is a Dutch director, producer and screenwriter, active in the Netherlands, France and the United States. His blending of graphic violence and sexual content with social satire is a trademark of both his dram ...
was set to film an English-language
theatrical film remake of ''Azazel'', titled "The Winter Queen", with
Dan Stevens set to star as Fandorin and the leading female role to be played by
Milla Jovovich. This movie was cancelled.
[http://www.millaj.com/film/winterqueen.shtml MillaJ.com interview]
New Russian Version
In August 2022, Plus Studios has announces the completion of the filming of the new Azazel adaptation based on the bestseller by
Boris Akunin
Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ ...
. An aspiring detective lives in an alternative year of 2023, with modern technology and robotics helping him investigate. At the same time, Russia is still a monarchical system, since the only revolution that the country has experienced is technological. It was premiered on
Kinopoisk HD streaming service on January 2023.
According to the sources, the official synopsis is that The October revolution did not take place, the Bolsheviks did not come to power, and
Czar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the t ...
Nicholas III (played by Maksim Matveev) shares the government of the country with the progressive
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Dmitry Orlov (Evgeniy Stychkin). At this time, 20-year-old Erast Fandorin begins his career in the detective police department. Being engaged in not the most interesting work, he learns strange news: the owner of an oil pipeline company, a young millionaire, shoots himself in the temple in the center of
Petrograd in front of dozens of people. Suicide falls on the camera recording of the police robot. Fandorin suspects that the case is more complicated than it seems, and takes on his first serious investigation.
The showrunner of the project is Alexandra Remizova (who worked on “Trigger”, “Patient Zero”), the director is Nurbek Egen (“Alibi”, “
Sherlock in Russia”). The series also stars Mila Ershova, Alexander Semchev, Milena Radulovich (from "
Balkan Frontier"), Artem Bystrov, Grigory Vernik. Erast Fandorin was played by Vladislav Tiron
.
References
External links
*
Traileran
Screenshots
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azazel (Film)
Films based on works by Boris Akunin
Channel One Russia original programming
Fictional portrayals of the Moscow City Police
2002 television films
2002 films
2000s Russian-language films
Russian crime films
Russian television films
2000s crime films
Russian crime television series
2002 Russian television series debuts
2002 Russian television series endings
2000s Russian television series
Russian television miniseries