Brigada
Brigada, also known as Law of the Lawless, is a Russian 15-episode crime television miniseries that debuted in 2002. It became very popular in Russia and ex-Soviet countries as well as Eastern Europe, but received criticism for positive portrayal of criminals and aestheticization of violence. The miniseries follows the story of four best friends from 1989 to 2000, and follows their rise in the world of crime from a local gang of petty thugs to a true mafia, mainly concentrating on the leader of the group, Sasha Belov, played by Sergei Bezrukov. The fifteen-part miniseries was written by Igor Porublyov and Aleksei Sidorov and directed by Aleksei Sidorov.
Plot
The series proceeds in chronological order, apart from the scene at the beginning of the first episode before the opening credits, which was taken from [|Winter 1997].Summer 1989
The film begins in 1989 when Sergeant Alexander Belov, has finished his national service in the Soviet Border Troops, and returns to his home in Moscow. He is greeted there by his three childhood friends, Kosmos Kholmogorov, Viktor Pchyolkin, and Valery Filatov. His return, however, shows that perestroika has deeply transformed the Soviet Union life and both Kosmos and Pchyola have turned to criminal racket on Moscow's markets. They try to lure Sasha to join them, but Belov abruptly refuses and instead has ambitions to attain higher education in vulcanology.Belov also learns that his former girlfriend, Yelena Yeliseyeva has become a prostitute. Enraged, Sasha ventures to the disco, and finds her there, but an attempted conversation is interrupted by Yelena's pimp, Mukha. Having earlier prepared for a likely fight, Belov strikes Mukha in the face with a brass knuckle resulting in fracture. Before Mukha's fellow gangsters have time to beat up Sasha, Kosmos, Fil and Pchyola arrive and rescue their friend.
What Bely did not know was that Mukha has strong ties in the Militsiya — his cousin Lieutenant Vladimir Kaverin. After Mukha's recovery, Kaverin agrees to cover the revenge against Belov, which is likely to result in death. Belov instead comes to the gang's gathering and challenges Mukha to a 1-on-1 fight, which the latter loses. The fight also ends Belov's relationship with Lenka.
Unlike Pchyola and Kosmos, Fil instead is keen on pursuing a sporting career in boxing. His ambitions are lost when a doctor diagnoses him with early symptoms of Parkinson's disease and does not allow him to continue boxing, yet at the same time offers him to compete in an underground Mixed martial arts club. Fil makes his fighting début there and is supported by his three friends, but the audience includes Mukha, who decides to take his chance to avenge Belov by stabbing him, when a brawl breaks out among the supporters. The brawl is broken up by a man, who fires several shots in the air, causing the crowd to run off.
The next morning Mukha's body is found in the hangar where the fight took place and Kaverin bribes the investigator to consider Belov the prime suspect. Soon, the militsiya arrive at his apartment with a search warrant and plant a pistol in his clothes. Kosmos, who accidentally passes by, is asked to witness the discovery of the pistol. When requested to sign papers as a witness, Kosmos spots Sasha on the street approaching his apartment. Kosmos leaves hastily and throws him in a car and explains what has happened. Afterwards Kosmos hides Sasha in a dacha outside Moscow, and his friends make separate statements to the investigator. Simultaneously, Sasha's mother tries to recruit a lawyer and also seeks help from Kosmos's father, Yuri Rostislavovich, who is a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and thus has numerous contacts among the Soviet elite.
At the dacha, Sasha notices a beautiful neighbour, Olga Surikova, with whom he immediately falls in love. He follows her to her violin recital in Moscow and begins a courtship. The date ends abruptly when Olga, waiting for Sasha to return from repairing a broken heel on her shoe, notices a wanted poster on the train platform with his face and name.
Sasha's friends decide to lift his spirits, and with Fil's sport contacts "recruit" a group of four female swimmers, whom they drive to the Dacha for a party that ends with couples pairing off for sex. The music volume is so high that Olga's grandmother calls the local militsiya sheriff. Having arrived too late to break up the party, he, however, discerns Belov's face, and upon returning to his station recognizes him on the wanted poster and immediately calls the OMON for an arrest. They arrive just after Fil and Kosmos drive off for more alcohol, and Pchyola and Sasha barely escape the gunfire-rattled dacha into the woods, where Sasha takes a bullet.
Realising that he is out of money, Kosmos arrives home and drunkenly confronts his father and Sasha's mother, promising that everything is all right with Sasha. Returning to the country, they find the sheriff taken hostage by Pchyola and Sasha and, warning him not to report the incident, drive off without killing him. In the meantime, Kosmos' father spends a whole night on the phone and finally announces that he has cleared Sasha's name. Unfortunately, it might be a year before he can return to Moscow. The 1989 story ends on top of Sparrow Hills as dawn breaks, with the four friends overlooking the panorama of Moscow. The blood-soaked Sasha swears to his friends that he will always remain loyal to them and to the Brigada.
Spring 1991
The film picks up in 1991 and the viewer learns that Sasha, after one and a half years of hiding in the Urals, decided that a criminal life would be natural after what has happened. Fil now works as a stuntman and the Brigada controls several auto-services and markets. Because, their income is insignificant and their prominence is low, Pchyola suggests to Sasha that they make their first big move by racketing the chairmen of the large trading company Kurs-Invest. The company owner, Artur, despite the obvious fear stricken into him by Belov's somewhat-humorous methods, abruptly refuses to accept his "offer", and leaves Belov's lawyer badly injured.In revenge, Belov hijacks Artur's large shipping of several train cars full of aluminium from Tajikistan. After an unsuccessful attempt by Artur's own semi-criminal bodyguards to deal with Belov, the profile of the dispute catches the KGB's attention and agent Igor Vvedenskiy announces Belov's talent to his superiors and seeks permission to let the group develop further, under their control. At the same time, Artur contacts the militsiya and his case is taken up by, the now Captain, Kaverin who sees this as a perfect chance to settle the 1989 incident with Belov.
In the meantime, Sasha marries Olga and, after a lavish reception, their first wedding night is to follow in their new apartment in the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building. However, this almost ends in disaster when the hem of Olga's wedding gown gets tangled in a wire attached to the pin of a hand grenade, neatly set up right across the front door of their apartment. Sasha manages to grab the armed grenade and throw it into the stairwell after a neighbour's dog rushed to rip the wire and release the pin.
Afterwards, in Kosmos's father's apartment, Olga confesses to Sasha despite her knowing who he is and what he does, she still loves him. Knowing that such action could have been carried out only by a mole, Sasha stages his imminent departure to Yalta, which causes the mole to reveal himself. Afterwards he is driven out into the woods and killed. Belov openly states to his Brigada that anyone who tries something like that will share his fate.
Kaverin shows Artur the picture of the dead mole, and much to irritation of Artur for the failed attempt to remove Belov, Kaverin tries to convince him that this is a perfect evidence to legally crush the Brigada. Artur refuses, but at that instant the Brigada burst into the office. Artur and Kaverin just manage to hide in the toilet, and Kosmos and Bee nearly assault Artur's secretary Lyuda. After they leave, Kaverin takes drunk Artur's signature to write a statement by himself. Yet at this point Vvedensky's KGB move in, and Kaverin is promptly discharged from service.
Simultaneously the original Aluminium producer from Tajikistan calls for the Tajik mafia to move in against Belov for hijacking their deal, as Artur paid only half the fee. In an imminent gang duel Bely recognises the leader as his old army friend Farkhad Dzhurayev. The two instead choose to turn to the drug trade, where Belov's Aluminium trains would be used to smuggle heroin from Tajikistan. To celebrate the deal, both Belov's Brigada and Farik's godfathers go to a lavish restaurant, where they witness Olga performing. Vvedensky makes contact with Belov and under threat of prison announces that narcotics are to be only transited via Russia. In return for Belov's agreement, Artur is forced to give up his position and emigrate, and Belov fully takes over Kurs-Invest including its office and even Artur's secretary, Lyuda.
Olga, after her graduation from the Philharmonia does not begin her music career, but instead turns to her former course-mate Vitalik, and joins his band. Vitalik, not hiding his attraction to Olga, tries to blackmail her into leaving her husband, who openly disapproves of both Vilalik and her being part of the band, which he further makes visible by having the whole party leave the restaurant. Eventually Sasha witnesses how Vitalik verbally offends Olga and makes him suffer in a short fight, after which Olga happily walks off with Sasha. The 1991 part of the film finishes when Olga and Sasha pause their love-making when they become aware that the television is broadcasting the same Swan Lake on all channels, which a Russian viewer will know is the beginning of the 1991 August Coup which brought the end of the Soviet Union.