The sacrifice for the emperor

USSR, 1991

SPiEF (LENFILM), TAK-T

91 min.

Spy fiction/historical

The film is created from the novel «Staff-Captain Rybnikov» by A.Kuprin, which is based on real historical events. An officer of the Japanese General Staff (Alexey Guskov) was ordered to penetrate into the Saint-Petersburg military circles under the name of Captain Rybnikov. He was exposed in 1904 after the well-known Tsushima Battle, where the whole Far-Eastern fleet of Russia was destroyed by the Japanese. By pure accident, and beginning just as fun, a quite unremarkable Saint-Petersburg criminal reporter began the uncovering of the spy as he noted some minor inconsistencies in the latter’s behavior, and immediately challenged him about this. The reporter then continued to pursue the spy in an extended game of cat-and-mouse, never allowing him to escape…

Prizes and Awards

1992

Prize Debut – 92 (Moscow)

Prize of Filmfest in Zarechy-91

CREW

• Roza Orynbasarova (Film director)
• Vitaly Moskalenko (Script)
• Serghei Yurizditsky (Photography director)
• Andrey Sigle (Composer)
• Serghei Kokovkin (Art Director)
• Serghei Avrutin (Producers)
• Mark Rudinshtein (Producers)

CAST

• Serghei Kudimov
• Mikhail Schetinin
• Serghei Kushakov
• Serghei Razhuk
• Vladimir Glazkov
• Svetlana Svirko
• Jeanna Sukhopolskaya
• Evgeny Merkuriev
• Alisher Suleymenov
• Alexey Guskov
• Alexander Kovalyov
• Anna Afanasyeva
• Evgeny Erokhin
• Alexander Sporykhin
• Andrei Urgant