Contraband

Contraband (1975) is a Soviet crime thriller by Stanislav Govorukhin you can watch online on iFILM. A smuggling ring is working a passenger cruise ship, and state security agents set out to shut it down.

It opens with an abandoned bag in the customs hall that no passenger ever claims. Inside sits a box of chocolates — and tucked into each chocolate, a thin platinum plate of the sort used for contacts in high-precision instruments. That single find pulls a thread leading straight to the people running the channel across the sea routes. The cast includes Vsevolod Abdulov, Nina Ruslanova, Raisa Ryazanova and Yuri Puzyryov.

Govorukhin, who would later make the classic The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed, plays this as a sturdy procedural about customs and counterintelligence, trading stunts for patient attention to detail. It suits anyone who enjoys Soviet detective films grounded in real craft. Stream Contraband (1975) online on iFILM.