The Brothers Karamazov

Based on the novel of the same name by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The tragic story of the Karamazov family takes place in a Russian province in the late 19th century. The relations of their father and three brothers are very complicated and contradictory. One of the brothers is accused of killing his father, whom he did not commit. The brothers are unable to help him, and only a loving girl follows him to hard labour.

If you saw the more famous version of this adaptation of Dostoeyevsky's novel with Yul Brynner from 1956, you'll know the gist of this story of the eponymous siblings "Dimitri" (Mikhail Ulyanov), aspiring journalist "Ivan" (Kirill Lavrov) and "Alyosha" (Andrey Myagkov). Thanks to their late mother, they are from a well to do family and as you might expect have grown up talking completely differing paths in life. The latter man has taken to a life in the church, the former is a bit of a wastrel and "Ivan" is more the philosophical type. Meantime, their grizzly father "Fyodor" (Mark Prudkin) has pretty much abandoned the gambling soldier "Dimitri". There's precious little love spread amongst this family, save for perhaps the young "Aloysha" whose general attitude to life has an innocent and forgiving naivety to it, but otherwise these are men increasingly separated by the same genes. As the story unfolds, there are complexities with not just the familial relationships, but with the women in their lives. "Dimitri", especially, sees his gambling compromise his own love with "Grushenka" (Lionella Pyryeva) which gives his father a mischievous opportunity to try to finally thwart his son's profligate ways. This is a decently faithful interpretation of the book that's told in three chapters as the brothers age and their relationships ebb and flow. It's probably the effort from Myagkov that resonated more with me as a man of innate spirituality who has to come to terms with not just an evolving society but with a questioning of his own faith that he's really not equipped to handle. Prudkin also delivers strongly as the father and the story itself combines elements of ambition, lust and love with religiosity and, to a degree, freedom that are quite thought-provokingly resented. Of course it's meant to be a piece of entertainment, so there are corners cut from the original text and maybe just a little stereotyping disguised as cinematic licence amidst a production that can be a bit dry and humourless at times, but it's still quite a provocative, even exacting, film to watch and it might just encourage you to read the novel.