Rooks

What it’s about

In 1947 Leningrad, police captain Alexander Ratnikov investigates a series of murders. The evidence points to Pavel Vedernikov, a technologist at a local fish farm. Ratnikov discovers that Vedernikov is actually Gunther Seiler, former deputy head of a Nazi children's concentration camp called "Rooks". Seiler has been posing as a Soviet citizen while searching for his family's art collection, lost during the war. He will kill anyone in his way to get it and escape abroad. For Ratnikov, capturing Seiler is also personal: Seiler is the only link to the captain's daughter, who vanished during the war.

What hooks you

Artyom Tkachenko plays Ratnikov, and Aleksey Makarov plays Vedernikov / Seiler. The series was shot in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, including New Ladoga, Vyborg, and the waters of Lake Ladoga.

Who it’s for

It is a good pick for those who enjoy detective stories set in the Soviet past, where a hunt for a hidden war criminal builds tension through careful investigation and moral stakes.