The Pretender(2019)

The Pretender is a Soviet crime drama set in the tumultuous years following the 1917 Russian Revolution. During the New Economic Policy era, a cunning criminal is mistakenly recruited as a police officer. Rather than expose the mix-up, he exploits his unique position, leveraging his underworld knowledge to crack cases that have long eluded the official force. The film explores the moral ambiguity of a man straddling two worlds—criminal and cop—as he navigates a fractured society rebuilding itself. Tension mounts as his double life threatens to unravel, forcing him to outwit both the law and his former associates. A darkly compelling tale of survival and reinvention in revolutionary Russia.