The story: Sergey Chelishev is a young and promising prosecutor who is celebrating his career advance at work only to find out the next morning that his parents were brutally killed. The killer, however, is caught right away, but something doesn't work out in his confession and Chelishev suspects that this is only the tip of the iceberg and wants to continue the investigation. But for some reason, his supervisor (Basilashvili) is reluctant to investigate the matter fully and closes the case. Chelishev decides to find the truth himself and becomes an independent lawyer.
During a routine conversation in jail with one of his clients he accidentally sees his old friend Oleg Zvantcev (Serebryakov) who was thought to have died in Afghanistan long time ago. It turns out Oleg is alive and on top of that he is the leader of one of the largest organized crime groups of the city, working for "the godfather" - Antibiotik (Lev Borisov).
Oleg asks Sergey to help him out by going to an apartment to talk to someone, who turns out to be his wife. Surprise strikes Chelishev when he sees that Oleg's wife is their old friend Katya, whom he always loved.
As Oleg remains in jail, Antibiotik starts to like Chelishev more and more for his wit and courage and eventually Sergey starts replacing Oleg in business and... at home.
One thing never leaves Chelishev's mind - the death of his parents. Well, perhaps the truth is not too far to find anymore. He also knows, that eventually Oleg will find out about him and Katya...
The movie: Vladimir Bortko had certainly directed a masterpiece. It's not a good-looking and corny tale like "Brigada" but actually a strong, serious movie, which keeps the viewer intense and thirsty for the next twist of the plot. Casting is absolutely amazing: Dmitriy Pevcov - one of the top sex-symbols of the Russian cinema - not just plays the character of Sergey but actually develops it going from an honest prosecutor to a tough and cruel criminal. Olga Drozdova who plays Katya (and is Pevcov's wife outside the screen) is absolutely amazing. Not only is she astoundingly beautiful but her feminine part fully completes Chelishev with her emotion, love and fragile-looking strength. And, of course, Antibiotik is a true villain who really makes you hate him.
Combined with original music score by Igor Kornelyuk and brilliant supporting cast (one of my favorite roles of Aleksey Serebryakov) this movie will simply blow you away with its romantic plot, actors' charisma and will show you the criminal world of Saint-Petersburg from the top level to the bottom low life scam artists and murderers.
