Azazel (miniseries)

Azazel
Directed by	Aleksandr Adabashyan
Written by	Boris Akunin
Starring	Ilya Noskov Kirill Pirogov Sergej Bezrukov Oleg Basilashvili Marina Neelova Ewa Szykulska
Music by	Vladimir Dashkevich
Cinematography	Mikhail Agranovich
Running time	204 minutes
Country	Russia
Language	Russian

Azazel (2002) (Russian: Азазель) is a Russian made for TV adaptation of Boris Akunin's introductory 'Erast Fandorin' 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 – Ivan Franzevich Brilling
• Marina Aleksandrova – Elizaveta von Evert-Kolokoltseva
• Oleg Basilashvili – General Mizinov
• Sergei Chonishvili – Ippolit Alexandrovich Zurov
• Marina Neyolova – 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

English-language version

Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven 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.^[1]

References

External links

• Azazel (2002) at IMDb
• Trailer and Screenshots
• Photo guide to Fandorin's places in St. Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire