babushkaizpravdy

This is an ageless picture because it poses fundamental questions before a viewer. The questions which need to be answered if he wants to be a citizen in the highest sense of the word. The main hero who is an investigator is an example of a man who wants to find out truth notwithstanding the tremendous resist from people surrounding him. These people are united by sin as much as by mutually intertwined interests. Though their main interest is to not allow the investigator to find out truth in order to preserve status quo. For me there is a lot of pessimism in the view of the movie makers in that fact that the main hero practically doesn't meet genuine ally who would be ready to search for the truth till the end. But I'd rather tend to share this pessimistic look particularly in relation to Russian society which is totally conformist.

Actually I'd like to have the same level of integrity which the main hero possesses. Though I am not sure whether it is possible but at least to strive to be like him...

It is never boring for me to watch this movie because of its profound content. And beautiful acting by Oleg Borisov and another actors.

"Do we have powder still in our flasks?" asks Taras his comrades during a violent battle. It is quite often that this very question is attributed to contemporary Russian movie makers meaning whether they are still able to create genuine works of art. And for me this movie gives an affirmative answer, at least in relation of Vladimir Bortko. I watched this film yesterday and I am still impressed with it. I enjoyed how actors played though sure Bogdan Stupka makes an absolutely outstanding performance, but the whole actors' ensemble is very well doing. Also I found cinematography very interesting. And sure Bortko deserves praise for his solid work which reminded me about those soviet times when such masters as Gerasimov or Romm created their epics.

This movie is about tremendously difficult choice between different values, between devotion to motherland (fatherland) and love for a woman, between traditional values of Russian people and values of west though in this movie we see how allegedly enlightened polish gentry (regarding itself as beings of higher order than cossacks ) executes cossacks in the most cruel way.

Though I have to honestly admit that I don't know how fully this movie renders Nicolai Gogol' story. Anyway I found the movie very interesting by itself not even in relation to the original source.

Having read many comments here i came to a conclusion that this mini is seen as a masterpiece. I can't say that i share such an assessment. In my opinion this mini couldn't be compared with a screen version made by Ivan Pyryev. That one was a genuine masterpiece, that one could boast plentiful actors' performances, excellent directing, music and so on -- all was so nice harmonized. And another thing -- i can't say that Evgeniy Mironov is very persuasive as Prince Myshkin, whereas Yakovlev's performance in the 1958-year version was genuinely splendid and precise. Moreover, it is well known how it is difficult to screen Dostoevsky's novels, and Pyryev managed to find the only possible way how to deal with Dostoevsky. He managed to bring expression and exultation to the screen, without these too things Dostoevsky is not Dostoevsky. And what couldn't pass my eyes and ears is that Pyryev really understood what is a Christian humanism, we can observe it in every shot, every scene of Pyryev's Idiot. And you hardly find all this in Bortko's 2003 version. I found that this recent version of Idiot is uninspired and unoriginal, and it lacks of what makes some work a masterpiece -- it lacks divine strength and spark in it. I give 7 to this mini.If you want to watch a genuine Dostovsky on screen -- look for Ivan Pyryev's (1958) version. I recommend also his version of Karamazoff's brothers.