A wide-scope panoramic view of Russia in 1916. The country is in its third year of war which seems to never end, with police rule, hunger and devastation at their peak. All this plays out against a background of luxury and corruption at the court, where the agonizing power still entertains hopes of coping with “the rebels”. Fear, despair and blind belief in Providence make a fertile ground for the “great” starets, adventurist Rasputin, who is a friend of the royal family and has gained mastery over the Czar and his ministers. The filmmakers used newsreels of the 1917 Revolution. This controversial historic drama was released twice: in 1975 and, after a number of changes, in 1985.“In the film world, as in real life, the atmosphere around us – I call it "air" – changes very fast. In the cinema styles change very fast too. So if a film is not shown shortly after it has been completed, then it becomes outdated very, very soon. And there is no longer any correspondence to new thoughts, to new levels of thinking. So if the film has not been shown for as long as ten years, then I think it is a real tragedy. For cinema has its own dramatic principles. […] When we started making Agonia, the figure of Rasputin was very important to me. I wanted Rasputin to be played by an entirely unknown actor. A kind of "sphinx," whose face could not be identified with any other roles. But now, in the ten years since the film has been released, the same actor – Alexei Petrenko – has taken part in other films. The experience was so anti-climatic when the film was shown ten years later”, says director Elem Klimov.
