''Agony'' (russian: Агония, Agoniya; U.S. theatrical/DVD title ''Rasputin'') is a 1981 Soviet

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

Elem Klimov Elem Germanovich Klimov (russian: link=no, Элем Германович Климов; 9 July 1933 – 26 October 2003) was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker. He studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, and was married to film dire ...

, made c.1973-75 and released in Western and Central Europe in 1982 (United States and Soviet Union 1985), after protracted resistance from Soviet authorities. The film is notable for its rich, sometimes baroque style, its sumptuous recreation of episodes from the final year of

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

and the psychological portraits of

Grigori Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus g ...

and the

Imperial family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term pap ...

Plot

The storyline follows the final months of 1916 up to the murder of Rasputin; some events have been telescoped into this time though they actually happened earlier, during the war. Rasputin's effect on people around him is shown as almost hypnotic, and the film avoids taking a moral stance towards him—breaking not only with Soviet history but also with how he was regarded by people near the court at the time, some of whom regarded him as a debilitating figure who disgraced the monarchy and hampered the war effort.

Cast

Aleksei Petrenko Aleksei Vasilyevich Petrenko (russian: Алексей Васильевич Петренко; 26 March 1938 – 22 February 2017) was a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor. He played Grigori Rasputin in Elem Klimov's historical drama ''Agony' ...

Anatoli Romashin Anatoli Vladimirovich Romashin (russian: Анато́лий Влади́мирович Рома́шин; 1931–2000) was a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor, director. He won the USSR State Prize (1977) and was a People's Artist of t ...

as emperor

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

* Velta Līne as empress Alexandra Feodorovna *

Alisa Freindlich Alisa Brunovna Freindlich (russian: Алиса Бруновна Фрейндлих, born 8 December 1934 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Soviet and Russian actress. People's Artist of the USSR (1981). Since 1983, Freindlich has been a leading ac ...

Anna Vyrubova Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova (''née'' Taneyeva; russian: А́нна Алекса́ндровна Вы́рубова (Тане́ева)); 16 July 1884 – 20 July 1964) was a Russian Empire lady-in-waiting, the best friend and confidante of Tsarina ...

* Aleksandr Romantsov as

Felix Yusupov Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston (russian: Князь Фе́ликс Фе́ликсович Юсу́пов, Граф Сумаро́ков-Эльстон, Knyaz' Féliks Féliksovich Yusúpov, Graf Sumarókov-El'ston; – ...

* Yuri Katin-Yartsev as

Vladimir Purishkevich Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich ( rus, Влади́мир Митрофа́нович Пуришке́вич, p=pʊrʲɪˈʂkʲevʲɪt͡ɕ; , Kishinev – 1 February 1920, Novorossiysk, Russia) was a far-right politician in Imperial Russia, no ...

Leonid Bronevoy Leonid Sergeyevich Bronevoy (russian: Леони́д Серге́евич Бронево́й; December 17, 1928 – December 9, 2017) was a Soviet and Russian actor. Though primarily a stage actor in the Lenkom Theatre, Bronevoy also made occasiona ...

as Ivan Manasevich-Manuilov *

Pavel Pankov Pavel Vadimovich Pankov ( rus, Павел Вадимович Панков, , ˈpavʲɪl pɐnˈkof; born August 14, 1995) is a Russian volleyball player. He is a Master of Sports of international class in Russia. Personal life Pankov's father, Va ...

as Manus * Mickhail Danilov as Mikhail M. Andronikov *

Mikhail Svetin Mikhail Semyonovich Svetin (russian: Михаил Семёнович Светин; born Michail Solomonovitch Goltsman; 11 December 1929 – 30 August 2015) was a Soviet, Russian actor. He appeared in more than fifty films. Svetin's room 2 ...

as Terekhov * Boris Romanov as Balashov *

Lyudmila Polyakova Lyudmila Petrovna Polyakova (russian: Людми́ла Петро́вна Поляко́ва; born January 28, 1939, Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian actress; she is a People's Artist of Russia (1999). Biography She graduated in 1964 from the Mik ...

as Praskovya Fyodorovna, Rasputin's wife *

Afanasi Trishkin Afanasi Petrovich Trishkin (russian: link=no, Афанасий Петрович Тришкин; born June 4, 1934, village Pesochnoye, Kaluga Oblast, RSFSR, USSR) is a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor. He is an Honored Artist of Russia ...

as Maklakov

Release

The film went unshown until 1981, when it was screened at the

Moscow Film Festival The Moscow International Film Festival (russian: Моско́вский междунаро́дный кинофестива́ль, translit. ''Moskóvskiy myezhdunaródniy kinofyestivál''; abbreviated as MIFF) is the film festival first h ...

and attracted very favourable reviews. Released in Western Europe, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland in 1982, it was hailed as one of the most original Soviet films of the 1970s. It was screened later in 1985, at the dawn of the

Glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...

era. The versions released in the 1980s, and later on DVD, differ somewhat in length and the final voice-over newsreel shots of the 1917 revolution may have been added in to appease authorities. The original mid-1970s cut does not seem to have survived, and it is unclear how much was rewritten or possibly reshot after 1975.

Alternate versions

At least four versions of the film exist, from 73 minutes, 104 minutes, 142 minutes (the North American DVD release from

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today it is a protected ...

) and 151 minutes (the 1982 international release).

References

External links

* * Watc
''Agony''
online at official

Mosfilm Mosfilm (russian: Мосфильм, ''Mosfil’m'' ) is a film studio which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's film monopoly, its output incl ...

site (with English subtitles) {{DEFAULTSORT:Agony (Film) Soviet biographical drama films Russian biographical drama films 1980s biographical drama films 1975 films 1981 films Films directed by Elem Klimov Films scored by Alfred Schnittke 1980s Russian-language films Mosfilm films Films set in the 19th century 1980s historical drama films Soviet historical drama films Russian historical drama films Films about Grigori Rasputin 1981 drama films