A Polish revolutionary's prison break becomes a meditation on sacrifice and identity.
Drama about the period of F. Dzerzhinsky's activity in 1902-1905, when he, having escaped from the Viluysk prison, lived in Poland.
Acting
Piotr Garlicki's Dzerzhinsky: intense, ascetic, terrifyingly committed.
Direction
Bobrovskiy's 138-minute slow burn builds revolution one whispered meeting at a time.
Director
Anatoliy Bobrovskiy
Piotr Garlicki
Feliks
Grigori Abrikosov
Azef
Barbara Bargiełowska
Róza Luksemburg
Donatas Banionis
Harting
Oleg Basilashvili
Kiryl Prokopiewicz Nikolajew (as Oleg Basilaszwili)
Agata Rzeszewska
Julia (as Agata Keschenska)
Eve Kivi
Aldona
Janusz Kłosiński
Zbigniew Norowski
Danuta Kowalska
Helena Górowska
Marian Łącki
Julian Marchlewski
Jerzy Matałowski
Wlodzimierz Notten
Yuri Medvedev
John Scott (as Jurij Miedwiediew)
Valentin Nikulin
Karbowski (as Walentin Mikulin)
Andrey Mironov
Glasov (as Andriej Mironow)
Yuriy Nazarov
Prochorow (as Jurij Nazarow)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Brezhnev's stagnation, this film rehabilitates Dzerzhinsky while the USSR was quietly forgetting his legacy. The irony is thick.
Barbara Bargiełowska plays Luxemburg with almost no screen time—her scenes were heavily cut for political sensitivity, leaving a ghostly presence.
SU
