Bender: Gold of the Empire 2021

Against the backdrop of the 1919 Russian Civil War in the south, the film traces the race to recover an imperial relic: the scepter of Pyotr Rumyantsev. The loss of this artifact could jeopardize vital arms supplies, so Lev Trotsky, serving as Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, assigns the toughened veteran Grigory Kotovsky to track it down and bring it back into secure hands. The mission is urgent, and the clock is ticking as factions hungry for power circle closer.

Parallel to the official hunt, a bold young adventurer, Ostap Bender, teams up with his wily mentor, the seasoned con artist Ibrahim Suleiman Berta-Maria Bender-bay, as they set their sights on the same prize. Their audacious plan hinges on breaking into the world of crime and illusion, and to do so they disguise themselves as Orthodox Jews to slip into the wedding of undertaker Mark Sagalovich’s daughter Sonya, hoping to snatch the scepter from a path of chaos. The target wedding is a tense crossroads where loyalty, love, and deceit collide, and every move is a risk.

But the night’s disruption comes from a different angle when the leftist anarchist Nestor Makhno crashes the celebration and makes off with the scepter, turning the fragile balance of power on its head. What began as a controlled treasure hunt devolves into a game of shifting allegiances, with improvised schemes colliding with revolutionary ambitions. The theft ripples through the camp and trenches, drawing out the calculated cunning of those who chase it and exposing the cracks within alliances that once seemed solid.

As the manhunt intensifies, Kotovsky forms a pragmatic, risky alliance with the notorious bandit Tarasevich. This uneasy partnership leads to a dramatic turn: Bender and Zadunaisky are captured and held as leverage, used to press their way into Makhno’s camp. The pursuit becomes a tense cat-and-mouse scenario, where every decision could mean the scepter’s fate and the survival of those entangled in the chaotic aftermath of a fractured empire. The film weaves together intrigue, disguise, and conflict against a landscape scarred by war, where cunning and loyalty are tested at every turn.