The crime Series "The Life and Adventures of Mishka Yaponchik" pursues an ambitious goal: to bring the fate of the legendary Odessa raider to the screen, portraying him from the most humane perspective possible. Mikhail Vinnitsky, also known as Mishka Yaponchik, is depicted as a true Soviet-style Robin Hood—a contradictory, at times paradoxical, yet unquestionably strong and remarkable individual. Circumstances worked out in such a way that Vinnitsky ended up behind barbed wire for the first time while still a mere boy, largely because of the overwhelming feelings he had for a pretty girl named Tsilya Averman. The Series' plot is permeated by the long love story between Mishka and Tsilya, in which tragic events alternate with comic ones, emotions run high, and the tension never lets up for a moment. At the same time, the creators devote considerable attention to Yaponchik's criminal talent; after all, this is a true legend of the art of thievery, a man who managed to combine cynicism and ruthlessness toward the nouveau riche with warmth and generosity toward the destitute. The Jewish pogroms carried out by the Red authorities in those days add even more color to the Series, which has become a phenomenon in its genre.
