From May 21 subscribers to the PREMIER video service will get access to a unique festival film Groza (The Storm), an adaptation of Aleksandr Ostrovsky’s classical play.
The film’s director, Grigory Konstantinopolsky, has previously created such films as Russky Bes (Russian Psycho), Koshechka (Pussycat) and 8 ½ $. Aleksandr Plotnikov, Evgeny Nikishov and Valery Fyodorovich served as the film’s producers. The roles in Groza were performed by Lyubov Aksyonova, Ivan Makarevich, Victoria Tolstoganova, Alexander Kuznetsov, Mariya Shalayeva, Aleksey Makarov and others.
Groza is a classical story that has been moved into a modern setting. The film’s action unfolds in our time in the small Volga town Kalinov where the lifestyles and habits of the inhabitants have not changed since the 19th century when the original play was written. A young married woman Katerina Kabanova has, what appears to be at first glance, a happy life. The only negative aspects are the constant complaints from her mother-in-law Kabanikha and her weak-willed husband Tikhon letting his mother get her way. But then Katerina unexpectedly falls in love with a relative of the city mayor, a young man named Boris, and finds out that these feelings are mutual.
PREMIER Studios (part of Gazprom-Media Holding) produced the film. Groza was previously only shown at film festivals in Russia, Italy, Israel and other countries. In 2019 the film received the main prize of Premio Felix, the II Russian film festival held in Milan, Italy. Now the auteur film with roots in Russian classical literature will be available to all subscribers of the PREMIER video service.