For this film Oleg Strizhenov received the Aleksandr Pushkin’s Big Gold Medal and the prize of the Russian Musical Fund of Irina Arkhipova “for the brilliant realization of the figure of Hermann in the film Queen of Spades”.

The film, set in the 1820s, follows a man named Hermann, who returns from army service to Moscow and is looking for a new experience. Soon, he learns about a woman named Liza and a Countess she lives with. He resolves to court Liza, but has another plan in mind: trying to learn from the Countess the secrets of gambling with playing cards. Pushkin himself tacted on a preamble that summises the film; ‘One who draws the Queen of Spades inherits bad luck’.