The movie is set in the year 1941, months before the German invasion of Russia. The two protagonists, NKVD officers Dorin and Oktyabrsky, are hunting a German Abwehr spy in Moscow. They believe their success might reveal Adolf Hitler's plans and the exact date of invasion.
It is implied that Dorin is a distant relative of Erast Fandorin, the most popular character of Akunin's books.
The film was based on the plot of Boris Akunin's The Spy Novel written in 2005.
In the tango scene, during a pause, the hero of Fyodor Bondarchuk clicks his orchestra loudly with his fingers. Although the hand is in a glove, and it is impossible to make such a sound in it.
The movie was a moderate success at the box office grossing $4.588.176 (258.479.483 rubles) against a budget of 192.000.000 rubles.
Critical response
From an article about the film The Spy in the journal Izvestia:[6]
The Russian film The Spy, sold in the USA for display on the VOD system (video on demand), in just a few days at the HULU video service, came out in number of views to 14th place among 2.5 thousand European, American and Asian films. This is an extraordinary result, commented on the information of Eleanor Pomegranate, representing Loskino in Los Angeles.
From the review of the film The Spy in the newspaper Gazeta.Ru:[7]
The Spy is the first successful adaptation of Boris Akunin's prose, placed in the only comic book space suitable for her.
From the review of the film The Spy in the newspaper Trud:[8]
Alexei Andrianov's fantasy turned out to be ironic, rich, full of chic and funny episodes. Where, for example, there is a wonderful Oktyabrsky tango with a movie star Lyubov Serova (Ekaterina Melnik) who was beaten off by him in a restaurant for unsympathetic youths - and in this scene the exquisitely self-righteous hero Bondarchuk evokes about the same feelings as the imperial Moscow invented by Andrianov.
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