On November 14, the PREMIER online platform starts showing the Epidemic series based on the novel by Russian writer Yana Wagner. This is the third premiere in the history of the tape: it was first shown in April 2019 at the Cannes Series international festival of TV shows, and a picture in the form of an hour and a half film also took part in the Moscow International Film Festival competition.
According to the plot, the apocalypse comes in the form of a virus. Symptoms of the disease: coughing and discoloration of the eyes; death soon occurs. Nobody knows how to resist the virus, and an epidemic is spreading in Moscow. They are trying to solve the problem radically - the capital is quarantined.
Inside the city, special forces are organized to combat the epidemic: their employees mark the sick with indelible white paint, and they try to isolate all those who have contact with the infected. The media only escalate the panic, not missing important information on the air, but bloggers decide to gain popularity on shock topics. Citizens cannot figure out from whom to expect help, and from whom - troubles. Both in the capital and beyond, chaos and lawlessness begin.
However, in the family of Sergei (Kiril Kyaro), “martial law” was introduced a long time ago. Since he divorced his wife Irina (Maryana Spivak), the hero has to fight to get meetings with his little son Anton (Savely Kudryashov). The mother does not miss the chance to remind the child that the father has a different family.
Sergei lives in the suburbs with Anya and her son Misha. The disturbing news rallied them even more, but in a critical situation the main character temporarily leaves a new family and undertakes to save Anton and Irina. He tricked into the city in a truck with food, fights off the bandits who activated on the very first day of quarantine, and finally breaks through the cordon on the way back.
In addition to his two families, Sergey assumes responsibility for the fate of almost strangers - the neighbor Lena (Alexander Robak), his daughter Polina (Victoria Agalakova) and her evil stepmother Marina (Natalya Zemtsova). The fact is that Lenya is used to relying on money and connections, but in the new world they depreciate too quickly.
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In general, the central characters of the series appear as pairs of characters with mutually exclusive personal qualities. So, the unconflicted, pliable Sergey does not at all look like a self-confident, rude Lenya, ready for betrayal in case of the slightest danger. Two opposing female characters - restrained, all-forgiving Anya and vengeful Irina.
Another important pair is Misha, suffering from Asperger's Syndrome (autism spectrum disorder) and Polina. Having found interest in Misha, the girl begins to provoke him in every possible way. In fact, she has her own difficult story: shortly before the outbreak, her father took Pauline from the clinic, where she was treated for alcohol dependence.
Bandits are operating in the Moscow Region, and an epidemic can get here any day. Therefore, three families, together with Sergey’s father, Boris, go to Karelia to Wong Lake, where it will be possible to wait out the crisis; first of all, not pestilence or anarchy, but a crisis of human relations.
Since the usual way of life is disrupted due to chaos - the Internet stops working, fuel runs out at gas stations (and this is only the beginning of the disaster) - people panic. They do not help the sick, on the contrary, at the slightest suspicion they can kill a person, just not to get infected.
There is potential for action in Epidemic, but the beginning of the story tends to be more suspenseful. The action develops slowly, but this approach allows you to focus on relationships and emotions.
So, when the central characters talk on the walkie-talkie on the road, an unknown person joins their channel. His loved ones died, and he is also sick. To support the man, the heroes begin to pray together - against the background of a disparate society, they unite with a stranger, albeit through a walkie-talkie.
The actor’s play looks believable, however, viewers familiar with the previous works of the artists may notice a recurring role: Mariyana Spivak got a heroine with an imperious, not too pleasant character, as in the film “Dislike”, and Natalia Zemtsova and in “Epidemic” are pursued by the image of Inga from the series "Eighties."
Alexander Robak again appears as the “master of life” on a local scale (he embodied similar types of characters in the film “The geographer drank the globe” and the series “Storm”). Well, Cyril Kyaro is still the same hero of “Treason”, which at first glance was not created for great achievements, but with the development of the action, his character reveals himself as a strong personality.
For Victoria Agalakova and Eldar Kalimulin, the "Epidemic" will probably be an important stage in their careers: both have a couple of dozen films behind them, but there were no memorable images in large-scale projects. Also in the tape are Anna Mikhalkova, Alya Nikulina, Yuri Kuznetsov, Alexander Yatsenko and other famous artists.
The director of the project was Pavel Kostomarov. He has many directing, producing and screenwriting works. In particular, he previously directed films such as The Law of the Stone Jungle and Chernobyl: The Exclusion Zone. The world of "Epidemic" is perhaps no less gloomy than in previous films, and it is also not easy for heroes to survive in it, and even more so to build relationships.