Ivan Sanchin
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''The Inner Circle'' is a 1991 drama film by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky, telling the story of Joseph Stalin's private projectionist and KGB officer Ivan Sanchin (real name Alex Ganchin) between 1939 and 1953, the year Stalin died. Sanchin is played by Tom Hulce, and the film co-stars Lolita Davidovitch and
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. The film is based on a true story and is an
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, Italian and Russian production. It is in English and has a running time of 137 minutes. ''The Inner Circle'' was nominated for awards at the
42nd Berlin International Film Festival The 42nd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 February 1992. The festival opened with '' The Inner Circle'' by Andrei Konchalovsky. The Golden Bear was awarded to American film ''Grand Canyon'' directed by Lawrence Ka ...
and the 1993 Nika Awards. The film received mixed reviews from critics.


Plot

Shortly after his marriage to Anastasia, Ivan Sanchin, who works as a projectionist at the headquarters of the state security service (called, anachronistically, KGB in the film), is summoned urgently to the Kremlin. Having proved his skill, he is appointed private projectionist to Stalin and his inner circle, including the head of state security Beria. This makes him proud and happy, for he venerates the dictator as if he were a god. When a
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couple in his cramped apartment house are arrested, their little daughter Katya is left behind. Though Anastasia wants to adopt the child, Ivan forbids it because her parents are " enemies of the people”. However she secretly visits Katya at a state orphanage. As German troops approach Moscow in 1941, Ivan and Anastasia are put on a train to a safe town. Also on the train is Beria, who gets Anastasia drunk and rapes her, sending Ivan back to Moscow. For a long time he hears nothing of her until she turns up one day, pregnant and abandoned. Her experiences have unhinged her and she commits suicide. In 1953 the lonely Ivan is visited by Katya, now an attractive teenager, who treasures the memory of Anastasia's affection. Ivan offers help, but she says she wants to go her own way. Following Stalin's death, Ivan, while on crowd control duty to masses waiting to view the corpse, sees Katya being jostled in the crush. He rushes in to rescue her and, this time, she is ready to accept his protection.


Cast


Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 8 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, ''The Banishment'' has an overall approval rating from critics of 50%, with an average score of 5.40/10. An academic response from Dr Milena Michalski was unenthusiastic, seeing the film as: :blatantly geared towards a mass audience unfamiliar with the context, whilst having pretensions to higher aims. In this case, the film attempts both to engage in a broad examination of history and to give a more intimate portrayal of personal lives within Stalin's 'inner circle' ….. 'In Stalin's Russia, even an action of love could be an act of treason', but, in the name of a happy ending, love is ultimately shown to triumph over both politics and death, as Ivan comes to understand how misguided he has been.


References


External links

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''The Inner Circle''
at Variety Distribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Inner Circle, The 1991 films English-language Russian films English-language Soviet films English-language Italian films 1991 drama films American films based on actual events Films directed by Andrei Konchalovsky Films scored by Eduard Artemyev Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era American drama films Columbia Pictures films Cultural depictions of Joseph Stalin Cultural depictions of Lavrentiy Beria American multilingual films Soviet multilingual films American World War II films Films set in Moscow Films set in 1941 Films set in 1953 1990s English-language films 1990s American films