Blackmailer

"The Blackmailer" is a film directed by Valery Kurykin, shot in 1987, a youth drama. One of the last Soviet films on the topic of school conflict.

Plot
The main characters are ninth graders Mikhail Rubtsov and Gennady Kulikov, who have been friends since childhood. Genka from a wealthy complete family, Misha was raised by a single mother and, wanting to save up money on a motorcycle, actively works as a photographer. Genka, not having a driver’s license, decides to drive her classmate Anya (who is not indifferent) to her father’s car and crashes it. A lot of money is needed for repairs. Misha gives the money earned in the photographs to friends, but they are not enough, and then Genka steals an expensive movie camera from the school photo studio (where Misha is engaged) to sell it. Genka's father Valery discovers the camera and, having tasted everything from his son, enrages. Not wanting to hang the thief’s stamp on Genka, he forces him to get rid of the camera by throwing it into the pond, after which he still gives his son money to repair the car. In the meantime, the school is under investigation regarding the disappearance of the camera.

The car is repaired, Anya is happy and calls Gena “a real man”, because of which a big crack suddenly runs between Genka and Misha after the latter finds out that his father gave the repair money (since this does not paint Genka as a real man ) Because of their quarrel, Genka's relations with Anya deteriorate. He hardly manages to make peace with Misha, but the relationship collapses again when Genka, unable to stand it, confesses to a friend where the camera actually went and why his father gave money for repairs. In the meantime, a parent-teacher meeting is going on at school, at which they think about why it was necessary to steal the camera. Unfortunately, Misha’s mother, Aglaya accidentally says that one should not focus so much on the debauchery of modern youth, because they, their parents, were exactly the same at their age. She immediately objected to Valery Kulikov, who almost openly accuses the woman of the fact that her friendship with Misha negatively affects the latter, and then completely offends the statement that the reason for the dissolute behavior lies in parents like her. As an argument, he calls the fact that, since she works as a make-up artist, artists and actors who are not alien to the world of bohemia constantly come to visit them. Because of this, Aglaya runs away from the class in tears, and Misha himself with a stone face watches this scene (after class in the studio, he stayed at school to wait for her and heard what they were talking about at the meeting).

And although his mother always taught him to never answer evil with evil, Misha, unable to stand it, comes to Genka’s house when only Valery is there and begins to blackmail him with a stolen camera (the fact is that the police are already dealing with her loss), demanding in return pay its cost. Due to the newly collapsed problem, Valery breaks down on his son, giving him a slap in the face when he comes home, but does not say anything to him. Then he comes to the Rubtsovs home to apologize to Aglaya, because he thinks that she was the one who made her son think of blackmail. But, seeing her perplexed reaction, he realizes that she had nothing to do with it, and leaves without telling her anything. Gene after a quarrel with his father does not sleep at home. Valery is engaged in his search, finds him walking at the Patriarch's Ponds and explains why he hit him. Gene runs into a rage and runs home, where he takes his father's gun. At this time, Misha explains to his mother why the father of Gena apologized to her, the mother calls her son a scoundrel. Then Gene calls them and demands that Misha go out into the street.

Misha is walking in the dark courtyard when Gena suddenly appears behind his back with a gun and accuses Misha of betrayal. He points the barrel at him, but Misha unexpectedly, with a calm expression on his face, goes to meet him. Gene is frightened and asks him to stop, but Misha still comes up. When he comes close to him, Gene is more likely from fear than intentionally, pulls the trigger. A booming shot, Misha shudders, but it is not shown whether he is wounded or not. The film ends with a demonstration of photographs of children.

Cast

 * Mikhail Efremov - Mikhail Rubtsov
 * Andrey Tikhomirnov - Gennady Kulikov
 * Nina Gomiashvili - Anya
 * Alexander Shirvindt - Valery Yuryevich Kulikov, father of Gena
 * Marina Starykh - Aglaya Antonovna Rubtsova, mother of Misha
 * Valentina Titova - Elena Kulikova, Gena's mother
 * Leonid Kuravlev - Fedor Semenovich, a friend of Aglaya Antonovna Rubtsova, actor
 * Sergey Garmash - Yakov Pavlovich, history teacher, class teacher
 * Georgy Kramerov - Sergey Matveevich, head of the photo studio
 * Irina Gubanova - school principal
 * Valery Afanasyev - Dimka-tinsmith, car repairman
 * Nikolay Kornoukhov - Grigory Kuzmich, watchman in the parking lot