Humiliated and Insulted

A young woman leaves her family to live with the man she loves. His father is set on keeping them apart and does everything he can to manage it. What stands between them is less a matter of feeling than of class and money. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Dostoevsky. The account follows the main line of the book and puts the helplessness of its people at the centre. The prince, a man after fame and money, forms the story’s opposite pole. Nikita Mikhalkov plays the prince, with Nastassja Kinski also in a leading part. The hundred and six minutes are spread over several months. Andrey Eshpay’s film, a coproduction of Italy, the Soviet Union and Switzerland, was completed in 1990.