Seven Arts Entertainment Inc.,An Independent Motion Picture Company

The Winter Queen

SYNOPSIS

St. Petersburg. May 1886. What would cause a talented young student from a wealthy family to shoot himself in full view of the promenading public in the Alexander Gardens?
Decadence and boredom, most likely, is what the commander of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Petersburg Police thinks, but he’s curious enough to send out the newest member of the Division, Erast Fandorin, a young man of irresistible charm, to investigate.
Fandorin - naïve and anxious to learn - vacillates between insanely bold bravery and full on fear as he throws himself whole-heartedly into this mystery. Murder and deception compete with duels and reckless gambling as Fandorin finds himself entangled in the web of the mysterious beauty, Amalia Bezhetskaya, a femme fatale who enjoys playing with the emotions of her many wealthy admirers.
Fandorin pursues Amalia to foggy London and back, getting himself in and out of deadly escapades -- he’s almost stabbed to death, finds himself forced into a game of Russian roulette, he’s bound in a burlap sack and thrown in the Thames to drown, his memory is in danger of being erased forever and Amalia’s ghost even returns from the dead to get her revenge.
Is this all about money or are the murders and the attempts on Fandorin’s life part of an international terrorist plot? Is Amalia their sirenlike ambassador? Should we suspect the British aristocrat Lady Astair, founder of a string of orphanages which have greatly benefited from the wills of the murdered men?
In this nightmarish world, who can Fandorin trust? Count Zurov, Amalia’s favorite lover, who challenges and kills every competitor in a duel? The overzealous Brilling, the special envoy to the Tsar who starts a brutally violent campaign against the terrorists? Are these “terrorists” even real? Or are they just a smoke screen to cover up something infinitely more ominous, a global conspiracy to dominate the world ?