The Fourth State (2012): Cast, Box Office & Plot

The film opens with a man stepping out of a Moscow apartment building, sensing something unsettling in the basement but choosing to walk away. Moments later, the entire building erupts in a devastating explosion, setting a shadowy tone for a story braided with politics, danger, and incomplete truths.

Thirteen years pass before a German tabloid journalist named Paul Jensen, [Moritz Bleibtreu], arrives in Moscow to work for a magazine steered by his late father’s friend Onjegin, [Rade Šerbedžija]. At a street corner, Paul witnesses a brutal street assassination—the target is a prominent journalist whose TV program had become a thorn in the government’s side. This moment drags Paul into a web of suspicion and media intrigue that will define his stay in Russia.