Marc Dugain adapts his novel into a compelling study of Stalinist evil. Voyeuristic cameras duck into the apparatus of the police state, from tenements filled with prying eyes to the eavesdropping halls of the Kremlin — it’s a perilous labyrinth that young doctor Anna (Marina Hands) must negotiate. Stalin (André Dussollier) appoints her as his personal physician — one misdiagnosed sniffle could mean a stretch in Lubyanka.
The pace is ponderous at times, but the Hobson’s-choice insanity of a paranoid nation makes for good drama. Dussollier is avuncular and ruthless — and always petrifying. Nearly a decade on from the war, he’s a dying monster in search of one final skirmish.