Gogol. The Beginning

(2017)

★ 6.2 IMDb · 113 votes

Genres: Mystery, Adventure, Thriller, Horror

Year: 2017

Runtime: 100 мин

Country: Russia

Director: Егор Баранов

Cast: Александр Петров, Олег Меньшиков, Ян Цапник, Таисия Вилкова, Юлия Франц, Сергей Бадюк, Артём Ткаченко, Евгений Стычкин, Антон Момот, Надежда Шумилова

Plot

1829: Nikolay Gogol, troubled Third Section clerk, burns his own books. Epileptic seizures plague him. Investigator Yakov Guro discovers Gogol's visions hold crime-solving clues. Together, they tackle a baffling case in Dikanka, where everyone hides a dark secret.

The year 1829. Nikolay Gogol, a young Third Section clerk, is desperate: his own books seem shallow and mediocre, so he keeps buying entire print runs just to burn them all. He is suffering from violent epileptic seizures and struggles to keep on working. Investigator Yakov Guro accidentally witnesses one such fit and realizes that Gogol's visions contain clues that could help solve actual crimes. Together, Gogol and Guro take on a particularly weird and baffling case that brings them to a small village of Dikanka, where everyone has a huge secret to hide.