The Execution

  • 137'
  • Russia
  • 2021

Like Fritz Lang, David Fincher or Bong Joon Ho before him, talented debut filmmaker Lado Kvataniya uses the concept of police detective vs serial killer for an excitingly stylised, macabre and haunting narrative, that ultimately revolves around the identity of an era: in this case, the late 1980s Soviet Union. With Glasnost and the end of communist rule, the West also learned of the (unsurprising) fact that there were serial killers in Russia too – the most notorious case probably that of Andrei Chikatilo, nicknamed the Rostov Ripper, or the Russian Hannibal Lecter.

Based on these and many other sources, Kvataniya and screenwriter Olga Gorodetskaya constructed an immersive psychological puzzle, jumping back and forth in time, to reveal ever new-possible motives for the actions of all the protagonists. It all starts in 1990, when Detective Issa Davydov is celebrating his promotion and receives a call, reporting a crime that looks precisely like the ones of the serial killer that he famously captured some years before ...

  • 137'
  • Russia
  • 2021
Director
Lado Kvataniya
Country of production
Russia
Year
2021
Festival Edition
IFFR 2022
Length
137'
Medium
DCP
Language
Russian
Producer
Ilya Stewart
Production Company
Hype Film
Sales
Pulsar Content
Screenplay
Lado Kvataniya, Olga Gorodetskaya
Cinematography
Denis Firstov
Editor
Vlad Yakunin
Production Design
Dmitry Onishchenko
Music
Kirill Richter
Cast
Nikoloz Tavadze, Yulia Snigir, Daniil Spivakovskiy, Evgeniy Tkachuk, Aglaya Tarasova, Victoria Tolstoganova, Olga Lapshina
Director
Lado Kvataniya
Country of production
Russia
Year
2021
Festival Edition
IFFR 2022
Length
137'
Medium
DCP
Language
Russian
Producer
Ilya Stewart
Production Company
Hype Film
Sales
Pulsar Content
Screenplay
Lado Kvataniya, Olga Gorodetskaya
Cinematography
Denis Firstov
Editor
Vlad Yakunin
Production Design
Dmitry Onishchenko
Music
Kirill Richter
Cast
Nikoloz Tavadze, Yulia Snigir, Daniil Spivakovskiy, Evgeniy Tkachuk, Aglaya Tarasova, Victoria Tolstoganova, Olga Lapshina