Agony: The Life and Death of Rasputin

Defrocked, degenerate, criminally lecherous and possessed by religious ecstasies, the monk Grigori Rasputin exerts his messianic spell over the indecisive Czar Nicholas II and his wife, steering Russia headlong into World War I. Aleksei Petrenko gives a blistering performance as the mad monk in Elem Klimov's radical film, made in 1975 and banned in Russia for a decade after its release. Anatoli Romashin, Velta Line also star. 142 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: Russian; Subtitles: English; bonus short; filmography; theatrical trailer. In Russian with English subtitles.