This film takes place in one of the darkest years in Russian history, 1916; it is interspersed with actual footage and photographs from that time that are startling and full of pathos.
Rasputin, part holy man, part womanizer and seducer, was a pivotal character in history, and Alexei Petrenko is superb in the part, and gives us a manic, dynamic portrayal of the "lecherous cur", with a marvelous physical resemblance.
Elem Klimov, who also directed the epic "Come and See", tells this fascinating story with passion and meticulous attention to detail, while Leonid Kalashnikov's lush cinematography, in amber tones, has the look of the paintings from that era. Alfred Schnitke's score also adds much to the film.
Anatoli Romashin believably plays Nicholas II as an emotionally immature and politically naive tsar. Because of Rasputin's curative effect on their son, afflicted with hemophilia (the genetic disorder he inherited from his great-grandmother Queen Victoria), the Tsar and Tsarina gave him enormous power, even to following his "visions" on tactics for the devastating war that was in progress.
A film that was banned for many years, it is a riveting depiction of one of the strangest and most scandalous figures in history, who had a huge influence in the downfall of the Russian monarchy, and consequently, as the film ends by saying, "the world would never be the same".
