故事发生在圣彼得堡的贫民区内，拉斯柯尔尼科夫（Vladimir Koshevoy 饰）是生活在那里的一名穷学生，本来在学校里读法律系的他，最终因为交不起学费而失去了继续深造的资格，只能灰溜溜的回到家中，靠着母亲和妹妹养活。
一次偶然中，拉斯柯尔尼科夫结识了名叫马尔美拉陀夫的男人，马尔美拉陀夫和拉斯柯尔尼科夫一样闲赋在家，为了生存，他竟然逼迫自己的长女去当了妓女。拉斯柯尔尼科夫发誓自己不能够和眼前这个邪恶的男人混为一谈，决定干一番大事。一天，拉斯柯尔尼科夫杀死了放高利贷的当铺老板娘，又杀死了老板娘的妹妹，回到家后，深深的罪恶感开始折磨拉斯柯尔尼科夫的内心。

While vacationing in the countryside at his childhood home, a woman suddenly reveals to her husband that she is expecting a child – but not his.

Gloomy postmodernism from the student of Tarkovski. I was really stressed by this film. It is very awesome and absurd story set in Kaliningrad. One can see a lot of ruined castles and 18-19th century German buildings here. You can also see the grave of Immanuil Kant and a lot of screened freaks. Atmospheric and cold suspense with some gore and psychotropic visions. Very nasty and hypnotic trip into the flashbacks of Perestroika and the USSR. This film has much influence from European post modernism and deals a lot with mental pain and its visions. I would recommend this film for those people who explores the dark side of experimental cinema. Quite obscure visionary and a lot of classical music.
Rich imagery and political allegory enliven an already complex story in this late Soviet-era mystery/drama. In the story, a government investigator has come to town to look into the validity of bribery charges that were brought against an official there. In the meantime, we discover that a twin and his brother have been engaged in a kind of very close warfare. One twin was a medical doctor, and was married to a beautiful woman. The second twin was interested in bedding the wife, and had no feeling for his brother. Thus, he impersonated him in the hospital, and openly engaged in medical malpractice of the grossest sort, resulting in a patient's death. The first twin lost his career and was forced to support himself by going door to door selling kerosene. The second (and clearly sociopathic) twin, naturally, became an important figure in the activities of his local soviet.

1997 film directed by Mimi Leder