Nikolai Pazhitnov

Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from Switzerland, where he was treated in a psychiatric clinic. On the train, on the way to St. Petersburg, the prince meets Parfyon Rogozhin, who tells him of his passionate love for Nastasya Filippovna, the former containment woman of the millionaire Totsky. In St. Petersburg, the prince finds himself in the house of his distant relative – Lizaveta Yepanchina (General's wife), meets her husband, their daughters, as well as the Secretary of General – Ganya Ivolgin. The portrait of Nastasya Filippovna, accidentally seen on the general’s table, makes a great impression on the prince...

Katusha, a country girl, is seduced and abandoned by Prince Nekludov. Nekludov finds himself, years later, on a jury trying the same Katusha for a crime he now realizes his actions drove her to. He follows her to imprisonment in Siberia, intent on redeeming her and himself as well.

Major timber merchant Yegor Bulychyov is terminally ill. In his house, he is surrounded by insignificant and greedy people, impatiently waiting for his death. Clever and insightful Yegor understands that he lived his whole life with strangers. He protests in his own way against the dissimulation and hypocrisy of the "masters" - the clergy, liberals, against the foundations of the bourgeois society that is going to collapse. Bulychyov's dying curse drowns his class in the powerful sounds of a revolutionary song.

Princess Mariya fell in love with doctor Toporkov, who was treating her, in the recent past the serf of her family. Now he has become a celebrity and is only concerned about buying a new home profitably. He does not notice her love and marries a rich merchant. The princess in love comes to see Toporkov and opens to him. Her strong feeling touches Toporkov’s hardened heart, he leaves his wife and leaves the princess abroad.

A satirical comedy with elements of metaphysical horror about religion in rural 1960s Soviet Russia. Notable for using first-person pseudo-documentary "found footage" technique framing the movie as the creation of the protagonist, who is returns to his home village from the city to discover that a local drunk has formed a doomsday cult.