Steel Butterfly
2012 film by Renat Davlet'yarov
Steel Butterfly (Russian: Стальная бабочка, romanized: Stalnaya babochka) is a 2012 Russian crime film directed by Renat Davletyarov. Runaway street children led by Chuma rob various people in order to survive. Suddenly they are caught by the police and now Chuma is forced to become the bait for a serial killer.
Plot
In Moscow, teenage runaway Vika Chumakova, known as "Chuma", escapes from a state orphanage and sustains herself through petty crime with a gang of street kids. After they commit a robbery in a park, the group is apprehended by the police, landing Chuma in the precinct where she meets Captain Grigory Khanin. Khanin and his team are investigating a series of brutal murders targeting young girls with artistic ties, all occurring in isolated parts of the same park. Suspecting a serial killer, Khanin devises a plan to use Chuma as bait, promising her freedom if she cooperates but threatening to send her to juvenile detention if she refuses. Chuma agrees, on the condition that she be released until morning and that her confiscated switchblade be returned. Throughout the investigation, she navigates complex relationships with her street friends and manipulates those around her, including Khanin, with flirtations and provocation.
As Chuma continues aiding Khanin, their dynamic grows increasingly tense and complicated.
The public source identifies “Steel Butterfly” as 2012 film by Renat Davlet'yarov. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Steel, Butterfly and film.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4439276. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Steel Butterfly” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.