Russia, 1870. A group of young anarchist revolutionaries set out to overthrow the Czarist regime through violence. Their attacks create a climate of psychosis and mutual distrust among the population, but in reality, both revolutionaries and repressors are being manipulated by a diabolical individual.
Direction
Wajda's controlled frenzy — political theater as actual theater.
Acting
Huppert's Maria — quiet devastation in a room of shouters.
Production
Claustrophobic salons and wide desolation — empire in decay.
Director
Andrzej Wajda
Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
Shatov
Isabelle Huppert
Maria Shatov
Omar Sharif
Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky
Lambert Wilson
Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin
Bernard Blier
Governor
Bożena Dykiel
Virginska
Jutta Lampe
Maria Lebjadkin
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu
Lisa
Jean-Philippe Écoffey
Peter Verchovenskij
Laurent Malet
Kirillov
Jean-Quentin Châtelain
Virguinski
Rémi Martin
Erkel
Wladimir Yordanoff
Lebjadkin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Wajda smuggled this into Cannes '88 as Poland's political ice melted — the film's paranoia about manipulated revolution felt dangerously current.
The famous 'meeting in the forest' scene condenses Dostoevsky's novel into pure cinematic rhythm — watch how Wajda uses off-screen space to suggest violence already happening elsewhere.
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