Dostoevsky's most dangerous novel: aristocrats, anarchists, and the chaos of free love in 1870s Russia.
Season 1 • Episode 4
LatestIn the mid-1870s, the landowner Varvara Stavrogina and Professor Stepan Verkhovensky are the center of society. Varvara's son Nikolai and the professor's son Pyotr are staying in Geneva. There, Nikolai becomes engaged to the beautiful Lisa Tushina. But he is already supposed to be married.
Acting
Maria Wimmer's Varvara: cold command in every gesture.
Production
1970s West German TV somehow nails 1870s Russian gloom.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
West Germany's 1977 adaptation arrived during the RAF terrorism years, making its nihilist revolutionaries uncomfortably contemporary for viewers. The Staatssicherheit reportedly monitored screenings.
Christoph Bantzer (Nikolai) reportedly refused to read the novel until filming concluded, fearing Dostoevsky's prose would make him overthink the character's silences.
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