Voroshilovskiy strelok (1999)

A very typical post-Soviet era storyline. Three young men lured an innocent teenage girl to their apartment, offered her a drink, intimidated then gang raped her. Local cops are incapable ... See full summary »

Director:

Stanislav Govorukhin

Writers:

Aleksandr Borodyanskiy, Yuri Polyakov

Stars:

Mikhail Ulyanov, Anna Sinyakina, Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Mikhail Ulyanov	...	Ivan Fyodorovich
Anna Sinyakina	...	Katya
Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov	...	Colonel Pashutin
Sergey Garmash	...	Captain
Irina Rozanova	...	Katya's Mother
Marat Basharov	...	Igor Zvorygin
Aleksey Makarov	...	Boris Chukhanov
Ilya Drevnov	...	Vadim Pashutin
Vladislav Galkin	...	Precinct Policeman
Vladimir Semago	...	Investigator
Vyacheslav Golodnov
Georgiy Martirosyan	...	Prosecutor
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Aleksei Goltsov	...	(as A. Goltsov)

Storyline

A very typical post-Soviet era storyline. Three young men lured an innocent teenage girl to their apartment, offered her a drink, intimidated then gang raped her. Local cops are incapable to undertake an adequate action against the scoundrels - prevented by the superior chief of the local police (militia) which is the dad of one the scumbags. The case is closed. The girl's grand-dad tired of endless circumlocution decides to take revenge of his own.

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Plot Keywords:

revenge | world war two veteran | rape revenge | taking law into own hands | teenage rape | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

19 April 1999 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Voroshilov's Shooter

Filming Locations:

Kaluga, Russia

Company Credits

Production Co:

NTV-PROFIT

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Stanislav Govorukhin couldn't choose an actress for the role of Katya from two musical school students, Anna Sinyakina and Yuliya Nachalova (a pop singer who had already started her career at the time), and asked Mikhail Ulyanov to help. The latter picked Sinyakina.

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Soundtracks

Odinokaya garmon
Written by Mikhail Isakovsky
Music by Boris Mokrousov

User Reviews

Grandpa Death Wish

"The Rifleman of the Voroshilov Regiment" admittedly has on one of the most overused and routine plots that exists in our traditional cinematic universe. It's yet another umpteenth version of the "Death Wish" story line, but still there are two tiny aspects that make the film quite unique and really made me want to see it. First of all, it's an authentic Russian production; entirely spoken in the native language and with those bizarre letters from the Russian alphabet used the title sequences. Honestly how many "regular" thrillers from Russia do you have the chance of seeing in your life? I've seen a handful of oddball Russian Sci-Fi movies from the sixties, and more recently the "Night Watch" trilogy, but those are all fancier films that were intended for the international export market. "The Rifleman of the Voroshilov Regiment" is a really small-scaled film, shot in a typical Russian village and starring ordinary Russian people. Secondly, the loving family member bent on extracting blood vengeance isn't the girl's father, brother or fiancée…It's her grandfather! On her way back home on a bright Wednesday afternoon, the incredibly cute teenage girl Katya is lured into the apartment of three macho thugs, one of which she went to school with. It naturally doesn't take long before they drug and gang-rape her. The investigation is rapidly closed, since one of the rapists' father is the police commissioner. Katya's devoted granddaddy Fjodorovich can't accept that his sweet girl locks herself inside the house and grows increasingly paranoid while those filthy scumbags remain unpunished, so he buys himself a massive – and I do mean MASSIVE – sniper rifle and meticulously prepares his quest for revenge. What are the differences between an average aged Charles Bronson and a retired 70-year-old one? I guess it's in the details. Fjodorovich carefully puts the flowerpots back on the table after he shot a rapist in the testicles from a window across the street, rejoins his friends who are playing chess on the market square and stands along in the curious crowd when the ambulance arrives. The screenplay also masterfully captures how Fjodorovich clearly doesn't care too much about what the possible consequences are for him in case he gets caught; as he purely acts out of love and compassion for his beloved granddaughter. "The Rifleman of the Voroshilov Regiment" is a slow- paced, but beautifully intense and absorbing drama rather than an exciting and furious revenge thriller. Our senior citizen Mikhail Ulyanov puts down a magnificent performance and, thanks to him coming across as a completely normal and prototypical grandfather, his character promptly earns all the viewer's sympathy and support. The rest of the cast is very good as well, the musical score is serene yet sublime and the climax (more or less anti-climax, in fact) is courageous, intelligent and subtle. This film is fairly obscure, but worth tracking down for sure. The copy that I own started with apologies from the company that provided the subtitles for all the probable errors. Yes, well, many of the wordings in English were quite incorrect, but on the other hand I never would have been able to follow the movie if it were in Russian, so I gladly forgive them!