“Lawyers”
The actress forms a comedic duo with Eldar Kalimulin in the dramedy “Lawyers”—a new project from Anna Parmas and Leonid Telezhinsky about the daily life of a law firm. The plot centers on the star-studded duo of two very different lawyers: experienced attorney Lyudmila and her new assistant, Artyom, a young idealist accustomed to strictly adhering to the letter of the law. When the ambitious newcomer is assigned to the firm’s best employee, a true test begins for both. The inimitable Vilkova delivers her signature performance as a headstrong woman with a strong character. The first episodes of the series were released on KION.
“Dear Relative”
Vilkova joined the star-studded cast in another comedy series, Parmas. A large St. Petersburg family finally decides to sell their old communal apartment and move out. Elderly Vera Yegorovna (Nadezhda Markina), her daughters Ira (Anna Mikhalkova) and Liza (Vilkova), as well as granddaughter Olya (Ekaterina Ilyina) and her husband Tolya (Denis Kornukh) dream of quickly receiving their share of the sale and starting a new life. However, it turns out that Ira’s ex-husband, an alcoholic and eternal loser, Dima (Timofey Tribuntsev), is still registered in the apartment. Upon learning of the impending deal, he turns his family’s plans into a living nightmare.
The Last Knight
“Varvara the beauty, long braid”—that’s not what Vilkova’s character in The Last Knight is like. In the film, the actress plays the treacherous Princess Varvara, who bewitches Dobrynya Nikitich and is ready to obtain the sword of Kladenets at any cost. She deceives Koschei, imprisons the young man Ivan, who has arrived from modern-day Moscow, and wages war on the magical world of Belogorye. It was The Last Knight that launched a fairytale boom in Russian cinema, began a large-scale franchise, and became the benchmark for the modern Russian fairytale film. And Vilkova’s vibrant and ambiguous villain, who appeared in the first two films of the series, offered a new take on female characters.
“The Tales of Hoffmann”
By day, Nadezhda (Vilkova) works as a librarian, and in the evenings, as a cloakroom attendant at the theater. She has a husband (Maxim Stoyanov), who married her for the sake of a Moscow residence permit and an old Khrushchev-era apartment on the outskirts. In short, her life can hardly be called a fairytale happy, but one miraculous event can change everything: a film director (Yevgeny Tsyganov), who drops by the theater, notices the girl’s unusually beautiful hands and invites her to star in a commercial. A touching and ironic dramedy starring Vilkova in an unusual role as a “gray mouse” has become a modern take on the Cinderella story.
“Cold Shores”
The small town of Ozersk is terrorized by a serial killer, and a wealthy heiress, Maria (Anastasia Mikulchina), goes missing after a fight with her husband. Investigator Alina Novinskaya (Ekaterina Vilkova) is assigned to both cases, but the deeper she delves into the search, the closer she becomes to the missing woman’s husband, Mark (Kirill Safonov). A happy life is not in store for the lovers—Maria’s sudden return will turn everything upside down. In the detective thriller Cold Shores, Vilkova is equally compelling as both a cold-blooded investigator and a loving woman.
Roller Coaster
In the summer of 1945, two young soldiers (Ivan Kolesnikov and Aleksey Morozov) meet a girl, Tanya (Karina Andolenko), in a Black Sea town, babysitting two children of British trade representative John Harper (Konstantin Lavronenko). It soon turns out that the girl is an NKVD agent, and the trade representative has been recruited by both Soviet and British intelligence. The complex interweaving of destinies is further complicated by the fact that Tanya is hopelessly in love with John. The 24-episode melodrama spans several decades and a dozen more characters and storylines, but Vilkova’s character, the unhappy and ailing wife of a British man, is definitely unforgettable.
