The Poet and the Tsar

Pushkin's last winter in Petersburg: Nicholas I takes an interest in Natalia Pushkina and lets the court, Benckendorff's police and the French officer d'Anthès do the rest. Anonymous letters arrive, d'Anthès marries Natalia's sister to quiet the talk, the talk continues, and the duel at the Black River follows. Yevgeni Chervyakov, who co-directed with Vladimir Gardin, plays the poet himself, thin and restless, and the film leaves him long stretches alone with paper and a candle. The first Soviet feature about Pushkin, released by Sovkino in 1927 for the ninetieth anniversary of his death, while the argument over what the Revolution should do with him was still open.