Just perfect...

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Soviet-American screenwriter, producer and director Andrey Konchalovsky's thirteenth feature film which he co-wrote with screenwriter Anatoli Usov, is inspired by real events in the life of a Soviet man named Alex Sanchin who was the private projectionist for Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) for twelve years. It was screened In competition at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival in 1992, was shot on locations in Moscow, Russia and is an Italy-Russia-USA co-production which was produced by Italian producer Claudio Bonivento. It tells the story about a field projectionist named Ivan Sanchin who lives in an apartment in Moscow, Soviet Union with his fiancée named Anastasia and who one day in 1939 after a man named Aaron Gubelman who lives in the same building with his wife named Sonia and their daughter named Katja is taken by KGB officers to the KGB headquarters. Distinctly and precisely directed by Soviet-American filmmaker Andrey Konchalovsky, this quietly paced and somewhat fictional tale which is narrated by the protagonist and mostly from his point of view, draws a moving and unsettling portrayal of a patriotic Russian man who during the beginning of the Second World War in the late 1930s is brought to the Kremlin and offered a job as a projectionist for the authoritarian and dominant leader of the Soviet Union which then was ruled as a single-party state by the Communist Party. While notable for its naturalistic milieu depictions, fine cinematography by Italian cinematographer Ennio Guarniero, production design by production designers Gianni Giovagnoni and Vladimir Murzin and costume design by costume designer Nelli Fomina, this narrative-driven story depicts a thorough and empathic study of character and contains a great score by Soviet-Russian composer Eduard Artemyev. This biographical, at times humorous and conversational drama from the early 1990s which is set in the former constitutionally socialist state of the Soviet Union (1922-1991) in the late 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s and where a woman forms a strong bond with a little girl who has been left on her own after her parents were taken by the Committee for State Security and an ordinary man becomes so proud and committed when he gets to work for the most powerful and worshiped man and dictator in his totalitarian country that it affects his relationship with the woman he loves, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, colorful characters and the charming and engaging acting performances by American actor Tom Hulce and Canadian actress Lolita Davidovitch. A historical, heartrending, romantic and informative narrative feature.

The Inner Circle is one of the movies which you can learn tasteless facts of history. While We Watch Stalin's private film projectionist Ivan Sanshin's life, actually we testify the whole nation's fate under the wings of Stalinism. The Inner Circle is so successful to portraits those sorrowful years. Yes, it's true that "bitterness level" of The Inner Circle is high(and maybe necessary too) but this movie tells this bitter story with a marvelous aesthetics that you feel both sorrow and ebullition at the same time. To able to take lesson from history, to able to understand a other nation's formidable and sorrowful efforts and to able to enjoy cinematic feast(which gives you mixed feelings)The Inner Circle must be seen. Watching The Inner Circle is definitely a rewarder experience.

I have lived in Russia in 1974-1977, and that was already past Stalin era, it was Brezhnev era. Somehow the situation in 1974 was not very much different. The same oppressed Russian people. Exactly like in the movie. I've seen this movie in the nineties in Indonesia. Everything is so real in this movie. I could even smell the Moscow air, the cold Moscow wind, freezing Russian winter. The people (characters) in the movie are very real. It's like being there again, back in Russia (CCCP). I could feel the thrill of being oppressed, when watching this movie. This is the best movie portraying Russia and the Russians, made by a Russian.

To The Actors & Actress and Writers & Director of The INNER CIRCLE go my heartiest congratulations To these People belong the rare distinction of having made the greatest Movie of Joseph Stallin's RUSSIA.A Movie unparalled in the Modern Film & Stage industry.This Magnificent Achievement was Made possible by their Spirit,Courage,Unselfish Cooperation,and loyalty to their Trade.Their Movie Should be an inspiration to the Actors & Actress that will fill their Places in future Years in the Film & Stage Industry.Stephen Hudson