Běsi – Dostojevskij Fjodor Michajlovič (2014)

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's (1821–1881) penultimate novel was condemned for years by Marxists, especially Gorky and Lunacharsky, as a pamphlet against revolutionary action; however, the world-renowned expert on the dark motives of the human soul was primarily concerned with how, and whether at all, his beloved Russia would confront its demons. Inspired by the trial of the anarchist Nechayev, who, as an advocate of ruthless combat practices, caused the death of his opponent from the illegal movement, the writer created an extensive portrait of a generation that, in its attempt to break free from the routine morality and cultural patterns of its parents, now hesitates between fashionable mysticism and pragmatic reason, between subversive violence and humble trust in good. Dostoevsky observes this revival through a provincial chronicle, in which an unobtrusive observer focuses on a trio of male protagonists: the carefree dandy Stavrogin, the complex-ridden radical Kirillov, and the power-hungry schemer Verhovensky, whose antics are subjected to more general tests of honor and love. The work from 1872, which develops a number of motifs from The Idiot and anticipates the family tragedy of The Brothers Karamazov, is often regarded as the author's most brutal. In 1988, it was adapted for the screen...