As an adviser to the emperor Nicholas II, mystic Grigori Rasputin holds great influence over the empire. However, many in St Petersburg begin to regard Rasputin, with his strange practices and mesmerizing qualities, as a liability and plot his assassination. When Rasputin, known to many as the 'Mad Monk', leads Nicholas to embrace an ill-conceived military strategy, a group of determined conspirators set down a plan to eliminate him.
Direction
Klimov's unhinged camera refuses to blink.
Acting
Petrenko's Rasputin is grotesque charisma incarnate.
Cinematography
Soviet agitprop meets German Expressionism.
Director
Elem Klimov
Aleksey Petrenko
Rasputin
Anatoliy Romashin
Nicholas II
Leonid Bronevoy
Manasevich-Manuilov
Alisa Freyndlikh
Vyrubova
Yuri Katin-Yartsev
Purishkevich
Mikhail Svetin
Terekhov
Velta Līne
Aleksandra Fyodorovna
Anatoliy Solonitsyn
Colonel
Sergei Karnovich-Valua
Russian General
Aleksandr Romantsov
Yusupov
Pavel Pankov
Manus
Nelli Pshyonnaya
baroness
Aleksey Vanin
legatee's educator
Lyudmila Polyakova
Paraskeva, Rasputin's wife
Olga Grigoryeva
holy fool lady (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the Soviet stagnation period, the film's grotesque depiction of tsarist collapse carried pointed contemporary resonance.
The production was plagued by censorship battles; Klimov had to fight to keep Rasputin's complexity rather than pure villainy.
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