Khitrovka. The Sign of Four (2023)

Хитровка. Знак четырёх

Moscow, 1902: theatre director Stanislavsky and reporter Gilyarovsky investigate a murder in the city's most dangerous slum.

Plays from Mosfilm's official YouTube channel. Subtitles start in English; use the CC and ⚙ buttons in the player to change them. Open on YouTube ↗

Year
2023
Director
Karen Shakhnazarov
Starring
Konstantin Kryukov, Mikhail Porechenkov, Anfisa Chernykh, Yevgeny Stychkin
Genre
Crime, Adventure, History
Running time
2 h 09 min
Based on
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle and stories by Vladimir Gilyarovsky
Language
Russian, English subtitles
Studio
Mosfilm

About the film

Konstantin Stanislavsky is preparing a new play about the poor and wants to see real life at the bottom of society. He asks for help from Vladimir Gilyarovsky, the journalist who knows every corner of Moscow's slums.

Their tour of the notorious Khitrovka market turns into a murder case. The victim is a mysterious Sikh with a dark past, and the trail leads to a story that Sherlock Holmes fans will recognise.

Shakhnazarov mixes real historical people with Conan Doyle's plot, and the huge recreated set of old Moscow is a pleasure to look at.

Did you know?

  • Stanislavsky and Gilyarovsky were real people and real friends.
  • The plot is a free adaptation of Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four.
  • The play Stanislavsky is preparing is Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths, staged in 1902.

If you liked Khitrovka. The Sign of Four