The Inner Circle (1991)

The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator's death. Told from Sanchin's view, the sympathetic but tragically ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrey Konchalovskiy

Writers:

Andrey Konchalovskiy, Anatoli Usov

Stars:

Tom Hulce, Lolita Davidovich, Bob Hoskins

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hulce	...	Ivan Sanshin
Lolita Davidovich	...	Anastasia
Bob Hoskins	...	Beria
Aleksandr Zbruev	...	Stalin
Feodor Chaliapin Jr.	...	Prof. Bartnev
Bess Meyer	...	Katya (16 years)
Mariya Baranova	...	Katya (10 years)
Irina Kupchenko	...	Directress
Vladimir Kuleshov	...	Colonel Schelkasov
Vsevolod Larionov	...	General Rumiantsev
Aleksandr Filippenko	...	Major Khitrov
Evdokiya Germanova	...	Governess
Lyubov Matyushina	...	Sonia Gubelman
Aleksandr Garin	...	Vasily Morda
Mariya Vinogradova	...	Fedosia

Storyline

The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator's death. Told from Sanchin's view, the sympathetic but tragically flawed hero maintains unwavering faith in his "Master" despite the arrest of his neighbors and his involvement with their daughter, his wife's affair with the chilling State Security chief Lavrentii Beria and her tragic decline, and the deadly political machinations within the Kremlin he witnesses firsthand.

---

Plot Keywords:

projectionist | josef stalin | love | 1930s | socialism | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

Italy Soviet Union USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Projectionist

Filming Locations:

Russia

Box Office

Gross:

$583,979 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Numero Uno International, Mosfilm, Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

137 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Black and White Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie premiered in the United States on December 25, 1991 - one day before the Soviet Union dissolved and became the Russian Federation.

---

Goofs

The movie covers the years 1939 to Stalin's death in 1953. However, it constantly refers to the KGB, an organization that did not come into existence until 1954. Until then the USSR security service was known by a variety of names, most notably the NKVD (Narodny Komisariat Vnutrennykh Del or People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) between 1934 and 1943. It is this organization that Ivan would have joined in 1939. However, the sign on the NKVD headquarters in the film does read "NKVD" not "KGB". This refers only to foreign versions of movie, because in russian version names are correct. "NKVD" is used in early scenes and "MGB" in '50s.

---

Quotes

Stalin: I know everything about everything.

---

Connections

Features The Great Waltz (1938)

User Reviews

another brilliant realization of the theme of "little man"

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...