# Azazel (miniseries)

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{{other uses|Azazel (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox television
| image = Azazel_film.jpg
| caption =
| director = [Aleksandr Adabashyan](/source/Aleksandr_Adabashyan)
| producer =
| writer = [Boris Akunin](/source/Boris_Akunin)
| narrator =
| starring = {{ubl|[Ilya Noskov](/source/Ilya_Noskov)|[Kirill Pirogov](/source/Kirill_Pirogov)|[Sergej Bezrukov](/source/Sergej_Bezrukov)|[Oleg Basilashvili](/source/Oleg_Basilashvili)|[Marina Neelova](/source/Marina_Neelova)|[Ewa Szykulska](/source/Ewa_Szykulska)}}
| music = [Vladimir Dashkevich](/source/Vladimir_Dashkevich)
| cinematography = [Mikhail Agranovich](/source/Mikhail_Agranovich_(cinematographer))
| editor =
| network =
| released = {{Start date|2002}}
| runtime = 204 minutes
| country = Russia
| language = Russian
| budget =
}}
'''''Azazel''''' ({{langx|ru|Азазель}}) is a Russian [made for TV](/source/made-for-television) adaptation of [Boris Akunin](/source/Boris_Akunin)'s introductory '[Erast Fandorin](/source/Erast_Fandorin)' novel ''[The Winter Queen](/source/The_Winter_Queen_(novel))''.

==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](/source/Erast_Fandorin)
*[Sergey Bezrukov](/source/Sergey_Bezrukov) – Ivan Franzevich Brilling
*[Marina Aleksandrova](/source/Marina_Aleksandrova) – Elizaveta von Evert-Kolokoltseva
*[Oleg Basilashvili](/source/Oleg_Basilashvili) – General Mizinov
*Sergei Chonishvili – Ippolit Alexandrovich Zurov
*[Marina Neyolova](/source/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](/source/Yevgeni_Grishkovetz) – Achimas Velde

==Remake==
===English-language version===
Dutch film director [Paul Verhoeven](/source/Paul_Verhoeven) was set to film an English-language [theatrical film](/source/theatrical_film) remake of ''Azazel'', titled "The Winter Queen", with [Dan Stevens](/source/Dan_Stevens) set to star as Fandorin and the leading female role to be played by [Milla Jovovich](/source/Milla_Jovovich). This movie was cancelled.<ref>[http://www.millaj.com/film/winterqueen.shtml MillaJ.com] // interview</ref>

===New Russian Version===
In August 2022, Plus Studios has announces the completion of the filming of the new Azazel adaptation based on the bestseller by [Boris Akunin](/source/Boris_Akunin). An aspiring detective lives in an alternative year of 2023, with modern technology and robotics helping him investigate. At the same time, Russia is still a monarchical system, since the only revolution that the country has experienced is technological. It was premiered on [Kinopoisk HD](/source/Kinopoisk) streaming service in January 2023.

According to the sources, the official synopsis is that The October revolution did not take place, the Bolsheviks did not come to power, and [Czar](/source/Czar) Nicholas III (played by Maksim Matveev) shares the government of the country with the progressive [Prime Minister](/source/Prime_Minister_of_Russia) Dmitry Orlov (Evgeniy Stychkin). At this time, 20-year-old Erast Fandorin begins his career in the detective police department. Being engaged in not the most interesting work, he learns strange news: the owner of an oil pipeline company, a young millionaire, shoots himself in the temple in the center of [Petrograd](/source/Petrograd) in front of dozens of people. Suicide falls on the camera recording of the police robot. Fandorin suspects that the case is more complicated than it seems, and takes on his first serious investigation.

The showrunner of the project is Alexandra Remizova (who worked on “Trigger”, “Patient Zero”), the director is Nurbek Egen (“Alibi”, “[Sherlock in Russia](/source/Sherlock_in_Russia)”). The series also stars Mila Ershova, Alexander Semchev, Milena Radulovich (from "[Balkan Frontier](/source/Balkan_Frontier)"), Artem Bystrov, Grigory Vernik. Erast Fandorin was played by Vladislav Tiron
.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb title|id=0312403|title=Azazel (2002)}}
*[http://rusact.com/?movietrailer&mid=38 Trailer] and [https://archive.today/20130201141722/http://rusact.com/?moviepictures&mid=38 Screenshots]
*[http://erastimes.8m.net/spb_eng.htm Photo guide to Fandorin's places in St. Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire]
{{Boris Akunin}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azazel (Film)}}
Category:Films based on works by Boris Akunin
Category:Channel One (Russia) original programming
Category:Fictional portrayals of the Moscow City Police
Category:2002 television films
Category:2002 films
Category:2002 Russian films
Category:2002 Russian-language films
Category:Russian crime drama films
Category:Russian-language crime drama films
Category:Russian television films
Category:2002 crime drama films
Category:Russian crime television series
Category:2002 Russian television series debuts
Category:2002 Russian television series endings
Category:Russian television miniseries

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Azazel (miniseries)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azazel_(miniseries)) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azazel_(miniseries)?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.
