The film stays faithful to Pushkin’s original text, striving to recreate the tale with a meticulous eye for detail. Maslennikov uses period-accurate costumes, shoots exclusively in Saint Petersburg, and even constrains the soundtrack to authentic era music by Dmitry Bortniansky. The production design and pacing mirror a living, breathing Petersburg milieu, with epigraphs at the start of each brief chapter appearing on screen to root the viewer in Pushkin’s voice from the very first frame.
A narrator Alla Demidova appears in the streets and salons of St. Petersburg, guiding us through the tale in Pushkin’s own words. She begins as she opens the door to the dining room of Narumov Konstantin Grigorev, where a handful of aristocratic guards officers have been up all night, engrossed in a tense game of cards. Their quiet world is momentarily observed by Germann Viktor Proskurin, an officer of the corps of engineers, who sits apart from the high aristocracy yet remains keenly aware of every whispered exchange. Germann is presented as an ethnic German who embodies a thrifty, almost stoic sterility: he shuns gambling not because of moral scruples but because he refuses to risk what is necessary to gain what is superfluous.
As the night unfolds, Count Pavel “Paul” Tomsky [Vitaly Solomin] shares a story from the youth of his now-elderly grandmother, recounting a French debt and a rumored intervention by the mysterious Count Saint‑Germain. The legend grows more extravagant as Tomsky mutters that Cardinal Richelieu had once fallen in love with his grandmother—though historical timelines blur, and the other officers sense the yarn is more fable than fact. Germann listens closely, perhaps taking the tale too literally, a contrast to the others who treat it as mere campfire superstition.
The plot thickens around the elderly countess Anna Fedotovna [Yelena Gogoleva], who is tended by a young companion—Lizaveta Ivanovna [Irina Dymchenko]—and who serves as the guardian of a long-guarded secret. Germann’s scheming gaze turns toward Lizaveta as he plots a way to slip into the countess’s inner circle and unlock the treasured knowledge she keeps. After a reckless mistake leads to the countess’s death, her ghost appears to him and reveals the fateful secret of the three cards, fueling Germann’s belief that fortune can finally be seized with little effort.
Bolstered by this ghostly whisper, Germann seeks access to the most exclusive card game run by Chekalinsky Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, hoping a single, perfect hand will turn his luck. He leverages his connections among the guards officers to insinuate himself into the circle, wagering modest gains for the chance at extraordinary wealth. The film’s central tension hinges on the inversion of the German stereotype: whereas Germann began as a sober, industrious figure, the chase for a quick fortune consumes him and drives him toward ruin.
Throughout, the narrative remains rooted in Pushkin’s language and framework, translated into a cinematic realism that emphasizes character psychology, social dynamic, and the peril of greed. The atmosphere—lined with carefully chosen period textures, restrained performances, and the subtle tension of a city that feels almost like a character—keeps the audience engaged as the fateful truth about the cards slowly comes to light. The movie ultimately presents a cautionary arc: the longing for wealth, when fueled by superstition and manipulation, can unravel even the most cautious, disciplined lives, leaving behind nothing but a cautionary legend wrapped in the mannered glow of a Petersburg night.
