The State Counsellor

The State Counsellor (2005) is a Russian crime thriller you can watch online on iFILM — the third screen adaptation from Boris Akunin's Fandorin novels, directed by Filipp Yankovsky. Late-19th-century Moscow: a senior gendarme general is murdered on a train from St. Petersburg, the knife etched with the initials of a feared terrorist cell. Prime suspect: detective Erast Fandorin himself, because the killer impersonated him.

Oleg Menshikov plays Fandorin cold and precise, suddenly fighting from a corner. Nikita Mikhalkov's General Pozharsky runs the rival investigation — and has every reason to want Fandorin convicted. Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Mashkov, and Oleg Tabakov fill out a cast where even the supporting parts land like lead roles.

Akunin wrote the novel as a political chess match; Yankovsky puts it on screen with imperial grandeur and a plot that hands you a full cast and no one you can safely back. Stream The State Counsellor (2005) online on iFILM.