Child 44 (2015) on Netflix
In Stalin's Soviet Union, MGB agent Leo Demidov finds a series of child murders the state insists cannot exist. His wife Raisa is accused of disloyalty, and he refuses to denounce her.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.4/1080,286 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes29%
Trailer
Plot summary
Leo Demidov is an MGB agent and war hero in the Soviet Union of the early 1950s, and he believes in the system he serves. A run of dead children comes to his attention, and the ministry will not treat the deaths as murders: official doctrine holds that serial killers exist only under capitalism. Leo's partner's son is among the victims, and Leo looks into the cases anyway. When his wife, Raisa, is accused of disloyalty to the state, he refuses to endorse the charge, and the pair are sent to the town of Volsk, where Leo takes a militia post and Raisa works as a janitor. Volsk brings more murdered children, and Leo and Raisa try to persuade his new commander, Mikhail Nesterov, that a killer is at work.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Child 44 (2015)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Russia's distributor, Central Partnership, pulled Child 44 from cinemas the day after a press screening, with the Ministry of Culture saying it was unacceptable to show the film before the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.
- For a short scene set in the Moscow underground, the production used the real Prague metro, which was closed to the public for the shoot, the first time that had ever happened in the system's history.
- Both the film and the novel it comes from are very loosely based on the case of the Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.
