The Duelist

Fog, rain and a pistol shot at dawn over 1860s Saint Petersburg. The Duelist (Дуэлянт, 2016) is a dark Russian period action drama by Aleksei Mizgirev that you can watch online on iFILM. Yakovlev, a disgraced former officer back from long exile, earns his living in a rare trade: he fights other men's duels for hire.

Cold and almost untouchable, he leaves a trail of bodies through high society and lets no one near him. Then he meets the naive young Prince Tuchkov and his sister, Princess Martha, and the armor he spent years building starts to crack. His own past keeps catching up, and the closer the story gets to its end, the clearer it is that these duels stopped being just a job long ago. Standing against him is the calculating Count Beklemishev, played by Vladimir Mashkov with a quiet menace that chills the room.

Pyotr Fyodorov holds the lead like a coiled spring, saying little and showing much. Produced by Alexander Rodnyansky, the film conjures the imperial capital in mud, gold and gunpowder. Hard, stylish cinema for anyone who likes history with real danger in it. Stream The Duelist (2016) online on iFILM.