The Russian Series "Hunting the Red Deer" is a unique subgenre of detective cinema—an oligarchic saga based not so much on Yulia Latynina’s novel of the same name as on typical events in Russian business in the mid and late "nineties," the era of the emergence and flourishing of the country’s shadow rulers. The events of the Series unfold in 1997, when a new general director, Vyacheslav Izvolsky, played by the incomparable Alexander Baluev, arrives in the Siberian city of Akhtarsk, a major metallurgical center. A born entrepreneur, he quickly puts the struggling enterprise in order, turning it into a genuine gold mine that attracts the attention of Moscow’s business magnates. Izvolsky’s troubles begin when its director, Zaslavsky, disappears without a trace from the combine’s Moscow branch. Denis Chernyaga, the head of the combine’s security service, is sent from Akhtarsk to investigate the incident. Chernyaga’s appearance in the capital sets off tragic events that vividly illustrate the lawlessness prevailing in the country, which was difficult to survive unscathed even for wealthy and successful people.
