Autsors (2025)

Plot Summary: In a remote Kamchatka prison in 1996, a young warden carrying out death sentences begins to believe that grieving families deserve the right to personally execute their killers. What starts as a moral conviction quickly becomes a dangerous and profitable scheme.

Based on: «The Daughter of a Military Pensioner» by Denis Dragunsky
Director: Dusan Gligorov
Screenwriter: Anna Kozlova
Composer: Sergey Kashirin
Starring:
Ivan Yankovsky as Konstantin (Kostya) Volkov
Eldar Kalimulin as Alexander Rybkin (Sasha)
Danil Steklov as Roman Savelyev (Roma)
Dmitry Sumin as Andrey Valentinovich Mikhailov
Leonid Telezhinsky as Pyotr Alekseevich Kulakov
Mila Ershova as Natasha
Daria Savelyeva as Yulia
Karina Alexandrova as Katya
Dasha Kotreleva as Nina

Jump to the Full Episode Guide

 

***SPOILER ALERT***

A Cold Landscape Full of Contrived Writing

Today we are looking at the Russian TV show Autsors, set back in 1996 in the small town of Elizovo on the Kamchatka Peninsula, right before Russia introduced the moratorium on the death penalty. Let's jump straight into my gripes with the series and what didn't work. My biggest issue here comes down to the endless coincidences pushing the narrative forward. Right from episode one, we have Kotov just randomly hanging out in the woods watching Volkov execute a rapist. Then there's the general lack of backstory for multiple characters (which honestly might be a blessing in disguise the more I think about it) but, the central problem revolves around our lead, Konstantin Volkov, and his baffling moral compass. One minute he cold-bloodedly executes Kotov, an innocent guy, and the next he's preaching high morality about letting victimized families execute death-row inmates for cash, even manipulating them into it. He turns into the only guy opposing Oleg when he wants to murder "The Doctor," which creates totally inconsistent standards. Speaking of Oleg, who the fk is he? Another character with zero background. Then Roma randomly runs into Volkov's wife at a grocery store, acting like they share deep history when they literally only met once at Sasha's wedding. The timeline feels disjointed and overly jumpy, leaving me wondering how everyone gathers in one spot so fast while their relatives are scattered across the map. Throw in a random Japanese tourist willing to commit murder while on a business trip, plus Karina Razumovskaya delivering some overt the top acting during the longest, most uncomfortable scenes, and the writing starts showing serious cracks. Still, there's plenty to love once you get past the script issues.

Check out the clip below to see the brutal scene where Kostya takes out Kotov.

Depraved Characters, Bleak Aesthetics, and Accidental Comedy

While the script stumbles with its narrative logic, the phenomenal performances across the board make it easy to overlook. Aside from Nina, the detective, and maybe Sasha (I'm still debating that one), there isn't a single likable person in this story. They are completely despicable and deeply fked in the head. Yet, their grim, violent nature fits hand-in-glove with the freezing, isolated post-Soviet Kamchatka backdrop. Visually, the setting is stunning, showcasing towering mountains contrasted against bleak panelka housing blocks. That depressive atmosphere pulls you in completely. One of my favorite moments has to be Andrey and Katya's housewarming party. Sitting through that absurd level of misery and sudden violence is so utterly uncomfortable that it loops right back around to being hilarious. The entire ensemble delivers, but Ivan Yankovskiy brings such magnetic charisma as the lead that you're practically forced to feel sympathy for this manipulative, control-freak murderer right up to the final frame. To top it off, that Grazhdanskaya Oborona track at the end was pure perfection. The song is actually "Daleko bezhit doroga" (curiously miscredited on the official credits, where they listed "Siyanie" instead). If you are interested in Russian music, check out my other project at musicarussa.com.

Watch the housewarming scene below where things spiral wildly out of control.

A Bloody Finale in Post-Soviet Paradise

The ending, while predictable (there was zero chance Kostya was going to die quietly at a bus stop), delivers a genuinely satisfying punch. Right before the chaos erupts, we get a montage set to music where everything seems to work out for everyone except Kostya. Everyone is smiling, kissing, sins seemingly washed away. Seconds later, an absolute maniac with an AK-47 guns them all down. I still don't quite get why the shooter killed himself immediately after, but watching that entire crew get wiped out was thrilling. Overall, Dushan Gligorov directs with serious confidence; he knows exactly what tone he wants and delivers the goods. The script has its flaws, but the misery, tension, and raw energy of this Kamchatkian wasteland carry it through. We even had to break our house rules and stay up until 2:00 AM just to binge two straight episodes right after episode five. Check out the English subtitles for all eight episodes and the full breakdown below if you missed any details.

Watch the climactic final scene below where the entire cast gets gunned down.

Freddy's Final Rating

71

Flawed script, magnetic performances, and a bleak landscape that makes you forget the plot holes.

📥 English Subtitles Download

Autsors — All 8 Episodes (English .srt)
Download the full subtitle pack for all eight episodes.
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Autsors — Complete Episode Guide & Plot Breakdown

Looking for a detailed episode-by-episode breakdown of Autsors? Need to catch up on a missed episode or sort out the chaotic finale? Here's our full guide to all eight episodes. WARNING: Contains major spoilers!

• In 1996, prison warden Bityugov introduces new employee Konstantin (Kostya), assigning guards Sasha and Roma to give him a tour. They walk past five death-row cells, where Kostya pities one of the inmates. His colleagues remind him the convict—Professor Mansurov—felt no mercy when killing and dismembering young girls.
• Despite their reluctance, they take Mansurov to the prison doctor, and Kostya goes to a pharmacy to buy painkillers for him.
• Prosecutor Andrey Zuev deals with domestic tension between his wife Katya and his parents. Katya threatens divorce, demanding they abandon their honest lifestyle to secure financial comfort, but Andrey refuses to compromise.
• An execution is carried out by the guards alongside Andrey and Dr. Peter, during which Kostya proves to be both humane and strictly uncompromising. Sasha invites Kostya to his upcoming wedding with Natasha; Kostya promises to attend with his wife.
• At her bachelorette party, Natasha and her friends recklessly interact with unfamiliar men. One of them, Vadim, ambushes Natasha outside her home and kidnaps her, leaving her to return only the next morning, badly beaten.
• Furious, Sasha scolds Natasha for her reckless behavior. Despondent, he steals a service weapon and contemplates suicide before resolving to confront Vadim at a cafe. Sasha hesitates to shoot, and when Vadim overpowers him, Kostya intervenes, fatally shooting Vadim with a sawn-off shotgun and helping Sasha dispose of the body and car. Unbeknownst to them, a stranger watches from the shadows.
• Sasha agonizes over the murder, but Kostya argues that guilt extends beyond those formally sentenced by a court. After rescuing Natasha from an attempted hanging that evening, Sasha forgives her and they go through with the wedding.
• At the wedding reception, the mysterious onlooker approaches Kostya and Sasha, introducing himself as Kotov. He reveals he witnessed Vadim's murder and offers to stay silent—and even pay them—if they arrange access for him to personally execute Professor Mansurov, the man who murdered his daughter.

• The police arrive at Natasha's apartment questioning her about the missing Vadim. Kostya reassures a panicked Sasha that the authorities lack both evidence and witnesses.
• Domestic tensions escalate for Andrey. Following another fight with her mother-in-law, Katya moves out, urging Andrey to exploit his position as prosecutor. Desperate, Andrey accepts a bribe when Sasha—prompted by Kostya—asks for Mansurov's case files. With the money secured, Andrey rents a separate apartment, delighting Katya.
• Using the case files, Kostya bypasses Kotov—who was falsely promised access once Mansurov's appeal fails—and instead flies to another city to meet Alla Linchuk, the wealthy mother of one of Mansurov's victims. He offers her the chance to personally execute Mansurov; that evening, she accepts.
• Roma runs into Kostya's wife Nina at a grocery store, bonding with her over modern literature as he walks her home.
• Dr. Peter's infidelities catch up with him: his mistress tests positive for HIV, and subsequent screenings reveal his wife Yulia is positive while he remains negative, prompting Yulia to blame him for ruining her life.
• Back at the prison, Kostya orders Kotov to leave. When Kotov refuses, Kostya murders him and stages the scene as a suicide.
• Kostya then pitches a lucrative scheme to the execution crew: "outsourcing" death sentences by selling the right of personal revenge to victims' grieving families, using Linchuk's massive payout as proof of concept. The team agrees. That night, they sneak Linchuk into the execution chamber and leave her alone with her daughter's killer.

• Peter offers his wife money for treatment, but Yulia furiously refuses. Soon after, she attempts suicide by overdosing on pills at a gathering; her friends intervene in time, rushing her to the hospital.
• Peter visits a psychiatrist about his sex addiction, eventually consulting with Dr. Vysokov—a death-row physician who claims his 38 murders were mercy killings for terminal patients—who suggests medications to suppress his urges.
• Natasha discovers she is pregnant and considers keeping the baby, but Sasha refuses to raise a child who might belong to her rapist. Kostya urges Sasha to accept the situation rather than destroy his marriage.
• Investigating Kotov's staged suicide, police grow suspicious after finding the victim hailed from Khabarovsk and carried a hand-drawn map of the area. Unfazed, Kostya targets Dr. Vysokov for their next outsourcing operation.
• Kostya and Sasha track down Popov, whose young son was killed by Vysokov. Kostya manipulates Popov by claiming the boy's illness is curable today, offering him the chance to personally execute the doctor.
• Shortly after Kostya leaves, Popov gives money to a visiting friend to start a new life—and a gunshot rings out from the house moments later. That evening, Popov's friend arrives at Kostya's hotel room to negotiate.

• Popov's friend introduces himself as Oleg and demands the chance to execute Dr. Vysokov to avenge his friend. When Kostya laughs it off, Oleg threatens to go to the police. This sparks a fierce argument between Kostya and Sasha—Kostya insists they must maintain strict moral rules so they don't devolve into cold-blooded maniacs, and suggests quietly eliminating Oleg instead.
• Roma visits Nina while Kostya is away, proposing they flee abroad to live freely like the characters in their shared books. Treating it as a joke, Nina writes down her address but tells him never to return.
• Natasha tells her mother about her pregnancy and her plan to leave Sasha. Her mother sides with Sasha, warning Natasha she will end up destitute; isolated, Natasha visits a clinic and undergoes an abortion.
• Yulia recovers from her suicide attempt. Peter falls severely ill after experimenting with Vysokov's libido-suppressing drugs before receiving emergency aid.
• Police investigator Zhuchkov presses Warden Bityugov for leads on Kotov's suspicious death, hitting a dead end. Using Kotov's hand-drawn map, Zhuchkov uncovers the burnt vehicle containing Vadim's charred corpse.
• Kostya gathers the team, announcing that Dr. Vysokov's victims' families were complicit in the mercy killings and won't pay for revenge. He reveals Oleg's offer but argues against taking it, stating their operation must serve true justice. The rest of the crew outvotes him, prioritizing the money.
• Investigating the trail of Vadim's murder, Zhuchkov tracks down Natasha at her apartment. Just as he arrives to interrogate her, she collapses from post-abortion complications, forcing him to call an ambulance.

• Andrey urges the crew to accept Oleg's offer behind Kostya's back; Kostya overhears the entire scheme.
• Sasha rushes to the hospital upon learning Natasha had an emergency hysterectomy following her botched abortion. Grief-stricken and drunk, Sasha seeks comfort from Kostya, who coldly follows protocol by locking him in an empty cell and reporting him to Governor Bityugov, resulting in Sasha's suspension and removal from the upcoming execution.
• Nina visits Roma and confides in him about domestic tension with Kostya. Roma comforts and kisses her, leading to an intimate encounter; he gifts her his mother's boots. When Nina returns home, an informed Kostya confronts her and cruelly shaves her head as punishment.
• Zhuchkov visits Natasha's mother at the hospital, shares his suspicions that Sasha is tied to a double homicide.
• Held captive at Peter's house, Oleg begs the doctor for release in exchange for the cash, but Peter merely doses him with heavy sedatives.
• The colleagues gather for Andrey's housewarming party, where guests are shocked to see Nina shaved bald, provoking a furious confrontation from Roma. Zhuchkov unexpectedly arrives, escalating tensions. When Andrey punches Katya in the face for taking a sip of alcohol, Kostya steps in to defend her.
• As the party winds down, Zhuchkov offers to drive Sasha home. Sensing the investigator has connected the dots, Kostya brings Zhuchkov into the loop about the outsourcing operation.
• Later, Zhuchkov and Governor Bityugov arrive at the execution chamber just as Vysokov's sentence is being carried out—only to discover Oleg's dead body. Bityugov immediately orders Roma to handcuff the investigator and summons the entire crew to his office.

• The group turns on one another, trading accusations about who leaked the scheme, before confessing the entire outsourcing operation to Governor Bityugov and naming Kostya as the ringleader. Bityugov locks the crew in the locker room, confiscates the cash, and takes off in Andrey's foreign car.
• In the morning, Bityugov visits Zhuchkov in his cell and attempts to cut a deal, but is firmly rebuffed. Zhuchkov vows to bring everyone down and reveals that Kostya was the one who tipped him off.
• At the hospital, Natasha furiously lashes out at her visiting mother for pushing her into the botched abortion. When her mother reveals Sasha is being investigated for double homicide, Natasha takes pride in knowing he committed a crime to avenge her. When Sasha visits, she greets him warmly; shocked that she knows the truth, Sasha abruptly retreats and warns Kostya to flee town.
• Kostya reports to work unscathed, leveraging undisclosed leverage to stop Bityugov from alerting headquarters. Instead, the governor grants Kostya a temporary leave.
• Bityugov returns to Zhuchkov with a new proposal: frame the guards, using Zhuchkov as the primary witness. When Zhuchkov agrees and they head out together, Bityugov murders him the moment he is distracted, ordering the body processed under an inmate's death record.
• Eyeing the scheme's profits, Bityugov interrogates the guards on Kostya's methods and pitches a neighboring warden a lucrative arrangement: secretly transfer death-row inmates for execution while continuing to claim government allowances for them.
• Ignoring Sasha's warning to run, Kostya instead visits the accomplices' families to sow discord. He tells Roma's mother that her son is entangled with a predatory woman, confronts Katya about Andrey's domestic abuse, and discharges Natasha from the hospital himself, letting slip that Sasha exposed her rape to him—leaving Natasha deeply disillusioned by her husband's betrayal.

• Bityugov confronts Andrey in the prosecutor's office, demanding to know how the operation ran under his nose and why the crew fractured during the second execution. Andrey explains that Kostya's rigid ethics clashed with the rest, who didn't care who pulled the trigger as long as they got paid.
• Katya alerts Natasha to their husbands' illegal racket, warning that they could all be implicated as accomplices. After finding Sasha's hidden cash, they head to Yulia, who is stunned by the revelation. Preoccupied by the frantic search for Peter's stash, Yulia forgets to pick up her son from school.
• Peter catches the women leaving his apartment and confronts Yulia, arguing that honest work could never afford her medical treatment, urging her to stop judging him and focus on surviving to raise their son.
• To help her mother, Nina's daughter secretly visits Roma, who tells her to have Nina meet him at the airport terminal the next morning. However, Roma discovers his hidden funds are gone—his mother has confiscated the money, refusing to let him run off with a married woman. Unaware, Nina slips away with her suitcase once Kostya leaves for work, but after waiting in vain at the airport, she is forced to return home.
• An intoxicated Katya rejects Andrey's advances, threatening to go to the police. Andrey reacts with bitter indignation, reminding her that his corrupt choices were solely driven by catering to her expensive demands.
• Natasha's mother searches for Investigator Zhuchkov, only to end up speaking with Bityugov. He reassures her that Sasha lacks the spine for murder, and their encounter quickly turns into a sexual liaison. While in bed in the next room, Bityugov overhears Natasha arrive and reveal the full outsourcing operation to her mother.
• As a new batch of death-row convicts arrives at the prison, Bityugov gathers his subordinates with an offer to resume the lucrative outsourcing business—on the condition that they permanently eliminate Kostya Volkov.

• Peter bargains with Dr. Vysokov, obtaining a lethal chemical cocktail in exchange for deferring Vysokov's execution by arranging a transfer to an outside clinic.
• Kostya coldly expels Nina from their home, refusing to forgive her after stating she failed to respect family rules while accepting his money and protection. Nina visits Roma's apartment, catches his mother counting the stolen cash, snatches the money, buys the most expensive boots she can find, and boards a flight out of town before Roma can stop her.
• After a bitter clash with her mother, Natasha takes Sasha's illicit money to a bar. When Vadim's grieving widow approaches her, Natasha cruelly celebrates Vadim's death and reveals he raped her, prompting the widow to smash a glass over her head. Later, Natasha reconciles with Sasha, returning his money.
• Yulia joins an experimental treatment trial with Peter's full backing.
• Bityugov escalates the commercialization of executions, cutting a deal to let wealthy Japanese tourists witness a killing. The session spirals when the clients beat the convict to death with their bare hands, gladly paying double the agreed fee.
• Peter prepares the lethal poison to eliminate Kostya, and the crew designates Sasha to carry out the hit. When Sasha confronts Kostya, blaming him for his ruined life, Kostya pushes back, stating Sasha made his own choices. Shaken, Sasha hesitates and refuses to use the syringe. The following day, Natasha steps in, meeting with Kostya herself and administering the lethal injection.
• As the crew enjoys their newfound riches, news breaks that President Yeltsin has signed a moratorium commuting death sentences to life imprisonment, wrecking their enterprise.
• Seconds later, an armed convict bursts into Bityugov's office, gunning down everyone inside before committing suicide. Unharmed and in full uniform, Kostya steps into the room from behind the shooter, calmly dialing the telephone to report the massacre.
• In the clinic, Dr. Vysokov is shown lying on a hospital bed, laughing hysterically at the unfolding chaos.