Black Square 1992

Set in Moscow during November and December 1982, just after the death of Brezhnev, the film follows a young trainee investigator, Alexander Turetsky, and his seasoned mentor Merkulov as they untangle a case that fuses murder, corruption, and state power. The opening epigraph quotes Vladimir Vysotsky’s Wolf Hunt and a French rendition of La Fin Du Bal, setting a somber mood as the city clings to secrets beneath a veneer of order.

The investigation begins when Rakitin, a high-ranking official in the Soviet foreign trade department, is found hanged near the VDNH exhibition center. On the same day, his lover, Valeria Kupriyanova, a Bolshoi Ballet dancer, is discovered murdered in a hotel room registered under Rakitin’s name. As Turetsky and Merkulov dig deeper, they uncover a criminal network dealing in contraband jewels and realize that stolen valuables are hidden in the homes of top-ranking officials.

Under Yuri Andropov’s rule, there is a renewed push for law and order, leading to the arrest of Mikhail Georgadze, Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, who later dies in custody. Amid the upheaval, Turetsky begins a secret affair with forensic expert Rita Schastlivaya Rita Schastlivaya, a relationship they must keep under wraps as state security agents surveil and intercept their movements.

They uncover that Rakitin had stumbled upon sensitive KGB plans to destabilize the global economy, plans he intended to leak to a foreign journalist. General Kassarine, a KGB officer trafficking gold and gems to finance covert operations abroad, becomes determined to suppress the investigation. After an unsuccessful attempt to recruit Turetsky, Kassarine escalates to violence, leading to Rita’s death and injury to Merkulov.

A final confrontation ends with Kassarine’s death in a shootout. Turetsky burns the compromising documents, erasing the incriminating trail, and, in the closing scenes, visits the recovering Merkulov in the hospital, revealing that he will continue his work at the prosecutor’s office. The film leaves a sense of unresolved tension, showing how power, loyalty, and truth collide in a society under pressure.