Torgsin

It's 1934. The USSR lives brightly. The famine of 1932-33 is already over. The era of the Great Terror has not yet begun. And no one can even imagine a war approaching. It is urgent to buy equipment abroad but where to get gold and currency for industrialization? For these purposes throughout the country work Torgsins - shops for trade with foreigners - oases of prosperity and abundance, which Soviet people have not seen since pre-revolutionary times. In exchange for gold, precious stones, antiquities or currency, wealthy Soviet citizens can buy here delicacies and inaccessible imported goods. The poor come for sweets and cakes for the holiday. And the "disenfranchised", classed in the bourgeois class and deprived of food cards, carry the last rings and earrings to the Torgsin, in order not to die of hunger.

Directed by —, Torgsin leans on a strong ensemble — Aleksandra Bortich, Grigoriy Antipenko, Aleksey Demidov — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The series landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about crime titles of 2017.