''The Major'' (russian: Майор, translit. Mayor) is a 2013 Russian

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

film written and directed by

Yuri Bykov __NOTOC__ Yuri Anatolyevich Bykov (Russian: Ю́рий Анато́льевич Бы́ков; born August 15, 1981) is a Russian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is best known for directing the films '' The Major'', '' The Fool'' and the T ...

, who also stars in the film. It was first screened as part of the

International Critics' Week The International Critics' Week (french: Semaine de la Critique) was founded in 1962 and is organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created following the showing of '' The Connection'' directed by Shirley Clarke which had been ...

at the

2013 Cannes Film Festival The 66th Cannes Film Festival took place in Cannes, France, from 15 to 26 May 2013. Steven Spielberg was the head of the jury for the main competition. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the Cinéfondation and S ...

. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the

2013 Toronto International Film Festival The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. '' The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and '' Life of Crime'' was the closing film. 75 films were ...

. The film tells of the staff of the

Russian police The Police of Russia () is the national law-enforcement agency in Russia, operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs from . It was established by decree from Peter the Great and in 2011, replacing the Militsiya, the former police service. ...

who fall in difficult life situations, and the use of official position and procedures to get out of them.

Plot

Police Major Sergei Sobolev's wife is in labour. The future father rushes to the hospital, but his car hits, at full speed, a boy who is crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing, killing him. The only witness is the boy's mother, Irina Gutorova. The Major decides to avoid responsibility for the

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

and calls his colleagues to the incident scene. His colleague Pavel Korshunov quickly eliminates the evidence that proves Sobolev's guilt. Despite the fact that the mother of the deceased 7-year-old boy knows the true culprit of the accident, the Chief of District police forces her to give false testimony in favour of Major Sobolev. Subsequently, Sobolev decides to confess everything and to be punished, but the other police officers do not like the idea because in covering for the major, they reveal traces of their own abuse, in this modernized yet still corrupted police force.

Cast

* Denis Shvedov as Major Sergei Sobolev *

as Pavel Korshunov, Sobolev's partner * Ilya Isayev as Tolya Merkulov * Dmitriy Kulichkov as Gutorov * Boris Nevzorov as Alexey Pankratov, Chief of Police * Irina Nizina as Irina Gutorova *

Kirill Polukhin Kirill Alekseevich Polukhin (russian: Кирилл Алексеевич Полухин; born 3 May 1969) is a Soviet and Russian film, stage, and television actor. Early life Polukhin was born in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint P ...

as Kolya Burlakov

References

External links

* (international sales agent) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Major 2013 films 2013 crime drama films Russian crime drama films 2010s Russian-language films Films about corruption Films directed by Yuri Bykov