Bender: The Beginning

Bender: The Beginning, also known as ''Ostap Bender. The Beginning'' (Бендер: Начало) is a 2021 Russian action adventure comedy film directed by Igor Zaytsev, a prequel to The Twelve Chairs from the production company Sreda. It stars Sergey Bezrukov as Ibrahim Bender, and Aram Vardevanyan in the role was dedicated to Ostap Bender-Zadunaisky.

It is scheduled to be theatrically released on 24 June 2021.

Plot
The film is set in 1919. A young idealist named Osip ran into a Turkish swindler, Ibrahim Bender, who, like Osip, hunts for a royal relic. Osip learns from Ibrahim flattery, deception, blackmail and brute force, falls in love with a fatal beautiful foreigner and becomes the legendary Ostap Bender.

Cast

 * Sergey Bezrukov as Ibrahim Suleiman Berta-Maria Bender-Bey
 * Aram Vardevanyan as Osip "Osya" Zadunaisky (Ostap Bender-Zadunaisky)
 * Nikita Kologrivyy as Mishka Yaponchik
 * Taisiya Vilkova as Eva Machulskaya, a swindler
 * Natalya Bochkareva as Madame Tsits
 * Georgy Shtil as Fuks
 * Aleksandr Tsekalo as Mark Sokolovich
 * Yuliya Rutberg as Madame Sokolovich
 * Yuliya Makarova as Sofi Sokolovich
 * Olga Sutulova as Osip's mother
 * Garik Kharlamov as Valiadis, host cabaret
 * Artyom Tkachenko as Staff captain Ametistov, military commandant of Solnechnomorsk
 * Aleksandr Ilin as Mendel Vinnitsky, Mishka's father
 * Yuri Kolokolnikov as Grigory Kotovsky
 * Pavel Derevyanko as Nestor Makhno
 * Andrey Levin as Leon Trotsky
 * Richard Lappers as Mr. Armand Hammer

Production
The film was shot by the Sreda company, owned by Aleksandr Tsekalo, and the television channel Russia-1. The film was directed by Igor Zaytsev. Bender: The Beginning is the first part of the series, followed by the films Bender: Gold of the Empire and Bender: The Final Hustle. It is assumed that later on from these pictures a single series about Ostap Bender will be created.