Plumbum, or The Dangerous Game 1987

On a cold winter evening, a citizen patrol bursts into a remote cottage where a group of thieves and gamblers are hiding, thanks to the undercover work of Ruslan Chutko, a fifteen-year-old known as “Plumbum” (Latin for lead).

By ingratiating himself with the criminals, Ruslan slowly gathers their routines and helps expose them, passing what he uncovers to his supervisor, Roman Ivanovich, nicknamed “Grey.” Soon after, he assists in capturing their accomplice, Tkach, a hardened criminal, at a local restaurant.

Although he longs to join a formal law enforcement squad, his youthful appearance leads officers to dismiss him, leaving him to navigate the line between boyhood and vigilante justice. At home, he seems like a typical son, singing Bulat Okudzhava with his parents, while his classmate Sonya Orekhova — the girl who loves him — quietly knows he leads a double life.

Driven by a self-imposed mission to uncover crime, Ruslan befriends a range of shady figures and even infiltrates a gang of vagrants, the Invisibles, relaying their whereabouts to his supervisor, Roman Ivanovich, the man known as “Grey.” His methods grow bolder: through blackmail, he extracts information from a bartender about a ring of counterfeiters and uses that knowledge to tighten the net, risking his own safety in the process as he throws himself in front of a car to prove his place among them.

In his pursuit of justice, Ruslan manipulates Maria, the girlfriend of one of the smugglers, into revealing details about her partner’s departure with stolen documents to Simferopol, earning her trust only to betray her confidence to the authorities. Later, he takes part in a raid that culminates in the capture of his own father, Viktor Chutko — Ruslan’s father — who is unaware of the full extent of the crime around him.

As Ruslan sinks deeper into his vigilante role, he helps dismantle the smuggling gang while wrestling with the fallout of his actions, including Maria’s heartbreak. Yet even as he experiences moments of satisfaction from aiding the authorities, his relentless pursuit of retribution drives him toward darker paths.

With Sonya’s help, he tracks down an old foe who once stole his cassette player, chasing the thief across rooftops. When Sonya follows, she tragically slips, and Ruslan must confront the cost of his single-minded obsession with justice.