Tsareubiytsa (1991)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Karen Shakhnazarov

Writers:

Aleksandr Borodyansky (writer)
Karen Shakhnazarov (writer)

Release Date:

1 October 1993 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

A patient in a modern day mental institution believes that he is the man who assassinated Tsar Alexander in 1881 and Tsar Nicolas II in 1918...

Plot Keywords:

Historical | 1910s

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Malcolm McDowell	...	Timofeyev / Yurovsky
Oleg Yankovskiy	...	Dr. Smirnov / Tsar Nicholas II
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan	...	Aleksandr Yegorovich
Yuri Sherstnyov	...	Kozlov
Anzhela Ptashuk	...	Marina
Viktor Seferov	...	Vojkov (as V. Seferov)
Olga Antonova	...	Tsarina Aleksandra (as O. Antonova)
Dariya Majorova	...	Princess Olga (as D. Majorova)
Yevgeniya Kryukova	...	Princess Tatyana (as Ye. Kryukova)
Alyona Teremizova	...	Princess Mariya (as A. Teremizova)
Olga Borisova	...	Princess Anastasiya (as O. Borisova)
Anastasiya Nemolyayeva	...	Nurse (as A. Nemolyayeva)
Aleksei Logunov	...	Prince Aleksei (as A. Logunov)
Vyacheslav Vdovin	...	Dr. Botkin (as V. Vdovin)
Vyacheslav Mukhov	...	Medvedev (as V. Mukhov)

Also Known As:

Цареубийца (Soviet Union: Russian title)
The Assassin of the Tsar
Carobójca (Poland) [pl]
L'assassino dello zar (Italy) [it]

Runtime:

Russia:98 min | UK:104 min

Country:

Soviet Union | UK

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:12

Company:

Courier Studios

Quotes:

Timofeyev: Enduring the fact that your relatives in Europe keep attacking Soviet Russia... The Ural Executive Committee have decided to shoot you.
Dr. Smirnov: What?
[shooting begins]

Exploration of truth

A touching film about errors, duty and colors of fear.

Interesting poem about the nooks of reality, the shadows of dreams, the dust of old hours and the ghosts of some gestures.

Exploration of history and its chimeras with the Russian manner to see, describe and show the essence of a sick world at twilight of emotions.

The talks between doctor and the victim of a terrified past are not only a subtle catharsis form or an exploration of truth but exercise to discover the roots of last form of original sin, the taste of truth, the rules of past, the marks of victim's respiration. Not a reflection in old windows but escape of spirit beyond the games of destiny or malicious accident. The characters are reflections of a strange era, specters of ambiguous desires and actors of a mad god. And only propriety, only way to be yourself is memories collection as shadow of a lost soul.

Show of memories, ladder of past, puzzle of facts and illusions, "Tsareubysta" is a very profound and subtle exercise to define the time and its shadows without shadows, masks or regrets.