Der innere Kreis

There is a human tragedy of global scale - and those humans who sway this tragedy and who just turned out to be grains of sand under those wheels of history. To model what those people were in their good and weak producers and authors of "The Inner Circle" made an awesome cast in this movie - don't you agree that Bob Hoskins playing marshal Berija is worth seeing anyway. Lolita Davidovich's and great Russian actor Oleg Tabakov's was magnificent performance. And at last the central character - Ivan Sanshin - is utterly shrill figure and utterly potent message. Due to genius Tom Hulce who looks and acts completely and very naturally Russian - as I see it being Russian myself. No further words on Tom Hulce - he's just a great actor (though not a "star" in the industry, as I can guess) and every one of his works worth seeing. Even in his small role in "Parenthood" he's very convincing and dramatic - and in "The Inner Circle" he has a great material to work on... An obvious merit of this film - it is historically accurate (with exception of ahead-of-time tanks and probably something else) in details. Accurate Soviet uniforms in a Western movie is really very rare thing and in this film uniform of NKVD-officers looks authentic to the Soviet people like me... And the director's job is not bad at all - Konchalovsky has his peaks and faults and The Inner Circle is one of the peaks, I guess...

After reading the comments of several Russians who have given their special insights on this film, I see no point in my going into detail about its plot. But, for the Americans who were bored with it... well, history is not your thing, to use the vernacular. For me, this movie exposed the odious nature of Soviet totalitarianism, and the complete human conformity that was required for survival. This is an important film.

I saw this movie in the 90s and there were no more than 10 people inside the cinema and the movie did impress me at that time. then i watched it again few days ago and i can only confirm my first impression. it gives a true and realistic view on what stalinism was with that feeling of terror and madness that permeates the entire movie. Hulce, Davidovich and Hoskins deliver a great performance. It is an almost unknonw movie that rivals with blockbusters such as Schindler's list without suffering any inferiority complex. We celebrate the holocaust day every year but we don't know much about stalinism and its atrocities. this movie opens the door and it does it greatly. watch it!

As an armchair historian who's read dozens of book on Stalin and the Soviet Union under his control, I was fascinated by this movie. A great cast helps underscore the paranoia, backstabbing, and fear of the Stalinist system as seen through the eyes of a small-time player who's been thrust into a very dangerous circle.

Hulce is terrific as the simple, hard-working Soviet citizen who wants nothing more than to believe in the system that dominates his life, yet he knows it's a system riddled with traps and monsters. Hoskins is equally good as the real-life monster Beria - Stalin's chief of state security and main hatchet-man.

A highly underrated movie.

I decided to review this film because of its emotional impact.

Like "The Killing Fields," it creates tremendous tension in the viewer by portraying sympathetic, likable characters within an environment of tremendous evil.

The acting and cinematography are both excellent, making a direct connection with the feelings of every character.

My only criticism is very slight (I did rate it a 10, after all), but I wondered a bit at the persistance of Sanchin's naivete. While this is central to his character, I found it a little difficult to comprehend based on what he went through.