

Season 1 • Episode 12
LatestFaik-pasha, who had long avoided a large-scale assault on the fortress, finally made up his mind: the Turks had a long-range Krupp cannon of great destructive power. One of its first salvoes seriously wounded the best gunner of the garrison, Kiryukha Postny.
Acting
Serebryakov broods magnificently through every cannon blast.
Production
Surprisingly ambitious scale for early 2000s Russian TV.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Pikul's 1973 novel, which romanticized the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War during a Soviet era hungry for patriotic historical fiction.
Stambula and Chernykh co-directed after separately cutting teeth on Soviet military miniseries; their clashing visions allegedly made editing a battlefield of its own.