Filmmaking news: Queen’s last move

Pre-production for filming a 4-part detective melodrama “Queen’s last move” is under way.

Cast: Vera Shpak, Ivan Oganesyan, Larisa Malevannaya

Nastya lives together with her old granny, manages a small construction firm and dreams, above all things, to adopt Danya, the orphanage resident, for whom she has a great affection. But, as it turns out, another family has claims for the boy – the journalist Vishnyakov and his wife, the TV presenter, both of them successful and well-to-do. No wonder that Danya will be rather given to them than to Nastya who is single and a business failure. In addition to all these trouble, she repeatedly gets phone calls from some prankster that converses in nursery and counting-out rhymes: “For want of a battle the kingdom was lost – And all for the want of a horseshow nail”. All this drives Nastya to despair, but suddenly – such a gift from above! – she is offered a big and expensive order for constructions of a municipal settlement “Sokoliki” for needy families. Surprised that the prominent contractor Zotov has chosen her one-horse company, Nastya gladly undertakes the works in a hope to recover her financial standing and win Danya over.

And then at the very start of construction works, a dead body is found on the site and identified as Kira – the wife of the businessman Zotov and a former classmate of Nastya. Back at school, she was a local queen and ordered Nastya about like a page, but afterwards they fell apart and did not see each other for years. Nastya realizes that Kira started a game with her before her death and left clues in an old tree’s hollow, just like she did back in their childhood. By following the clues, Nastya finds USB sticks with school-time photos in various people’s places, but every time she plugs the USB stick in a computer, someone attacks her. Nastya is being hunted down and she doesn’t know why. There is nowhere to turn for help, as she’s got no-one at her side but her granny. Nevertheless, a protector turns up and, surprisingly, it is that very same journalist Vishnyakov who cannot stand on the sidelines when the weak ones get mistreated. While helping Nastya to fling off pursuers and delivering her from captivity, the journalist will soon realize that this woman needs a family and children much more than his lawful wife. Once they overcome all obstacles, learn a shocking truth about “Sokoliki” settlement and defeat all enemies, our characters will become the very best parents for Danya.

Film director: Igor Draka
Production company: company “Echelon film” and production company “Leandra” ordered by “Telemaster” studio
Producers: Rodion Pavlyuchik, Svetlana Snitko
Scriptwriters: Vera Smirnova, Inna Vasilyeva
Runtime: 4 episodes, 44 minutes each
Category: detective drama
Production year: 2015