The Inner Circle (1991 film)

Infobox Film
name=The Inner Circle


director=Andrei Konchalovsky
writer=Anatoli Usov
starring=Tom Hulce
Lolita Davidovich
Bob Hoskins
Aleksandr Zbruyev
Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.
producer=
distributor=
released=1991
runtime=137 min
language=English
budget=
imdb_id=0103838

"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 between 1939 and 1953, the dictator's year of death. The film is based on a true story and is an American, Italian and Russian production. It is in English and has a running time of 137 minutes.

"The Inner Circle" had a nomination in the 1992 Berlin International Film Festival and the 1993 Nika Awards.

Plot

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.