Malmkrog

Malmkrog
Film poster
Directed byCristi Puiu
Written byCristi Puiu
Produced byAnca Puiu
StarringFrédéric Schulz-Richard
CinematographyTudor Vladimir Panduru
Production
companies
Bord Cadre Films
Centre National du Cinéma
Cinnamon Films
Release date
  • 20 February 2020 (2020-02-20) (Berlin)
Running time
201 minutes
CountryRomania
LanguagesHungarian
French
Russian
German

Malmkrog is a 2020 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Cristi Puiu.

Set in turn-of-the-20th-century Transylvania, at the snowy hillside manor of a blithe aristocrat named Nikolai (Frédéric Schulz-Richard), the film follows for nearly the entirety of its 200 minutes a series of winding conversations between a group of bourgeois elite—among them a Russian general's wife (Diana Sakalauskaité), a devout young Christian girl (Marina Palii), a Franco-Russian nobleman (Ugo Broussot), and a middle-aged woman (Agathe Bosch) whose pessimistic worldview seems to embody the essence of Solovyov's book.

The conversations always return to a central topic: whether one should adopt a non-violent approach to the organisation of society (Tolstoy's attitude, which Solovyov abhorred), or approach the duty of fighting war in a fervently committed, Christian spirit.

It was shown in the Encounters section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it also won the Best Director Award.

Cast