COACHELLA VALLEY PREMIERE

Coachella Valley Premiere

There’s no way back, once you cross the line

Playing out over the course of one day, The Major is a gripping drama that sees screenwriter-director Yuri Bykov deliver an indicting criticism of police corruption and the collateral damage it leaves behind.

Speeding down a rural road on a cold, snowy day, towards the hospital where his wife is giving birth, Sergey Sobolev (Denis Shvedov), a police major at a small city precinct, runs over a boy — with the boy’s mother, Irina, standing helplessly nearby. Now the major has only two options: go to prison or conceal the crime. In a split-second decision, he locks the fainting mother in his car and calls in fellow officer Kroshunov (played with dutiful determination by Bykov himself).

But the case turns out to be messy and when Sobolev finally changes his mind and tries to make up for his deed, it’s already too late…

Writer|Director: Yuri Bykov
Running time: 99 minutes
Distributor: m-appeal (Germany)
Genre: Action | Crime | Drama
Country: Russia
Language: Russian w/English subtitles
Rating: N/R but does include violence and profanity
Starring: Denis Shvedov, Yuri Bykov, Irina Nizina

FESTIVALS: Cannes Film Festival, France; Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Czech Republic; Zurich Film Festival, Switzerland; Warsaw Film Festival, Sputnik Russian Film Festival, Poland; Chicago International Film Festival, US; Stockholm International Film Festival, Sweden, Toronto IFF, Canda, Santa Barbara Film Festival (U.S. Premiere Jan 31, 2014)

AWARDS: Shanghai IFF, Best Film; Film Festival Cottbus, Germany, Best Director; Bratislava IFF, Slovakia, Best Director