A con man moves in and nobody kicks him out. Dostoevsky knew people.
The film is based on the story of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. A sad story about how the demagogue and idler Foma Opiskin lived in the house of Colonel Rostanev, took possession of the souls and minds of educated, intelligent people.
Acting
Foma's performative humility will make you scream
Writing
Dostoevsky's dialogue cuts deeper than any knife
Direction
Tsutsulkovsky lets discomfort breathe for three hours
Director
Lev Tsutsulkovsky
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dostoevsky wrote this after his own gambling debts forced him to beg from friends—he knew the humiliation of dependency from both sides.
This 1989 adaptation arrived as Soviet structures collapsed; audiences recognized Foma in every bureaucrat clinging to false authority.
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