Poor, Poor Pavel

Story

Synopsis

Lenfilm's most recent major production spins a kind of historical fantasy based on real incidents that's full of ominous implications for today. One night, a patrol rushes into the chambers of the Russian prince Pavel, son of the Empress Catherine; the Empress has died, and Pavel is to be anointed the new Tsar. Thought to be feeble-minded at best and crazy at worst, Pavel soon lives up to his enemies' fears: he dismisses long-serving courtiers, demands that peasants only work three days a week, and declares that state officials should start their days at 5 am. Soon, it seems that everyone who can is trying to hatch some kind of plot against him - including his own sons. Sumptuously designed, POOR POOR PAVEL constrasts the imperial splendor of the court with the sordid atmosphere of conspiracies and backstabbing that comes to define these characters' lives.

Director

Vitaliy Melnikov

Writers

Vitaliy Melnikov, Dmitry Merezhkovski

Language

Russian

Country

Russia

Release date

21 June 2003

Ensemble

Cast

• 

  Viktor Sukhorukov

  Emperor Pavel the First

• 

  Oleg Yankovskiy

  Count Palen

• 

  Oksana Mysina

  Empress Mariya Fyodorovna

• 

  Aleksey Barabash

  Aleksandr

• 

  Anna Molchanova

  Yelizaveta

• 

  Yuliya Mavrina

  Lopukhina

• 

  Igor Shibanov

  Kutaisov

• Yevgeni Karpov

  Konstantin

• 

  Vadim Lobanov

  Bezborodko

• 

  Vera Karpova

  Baroness Livsi

• Aleksandr Grigoryants

  Brenna

• 

  Dmitriy Sutyrin

  Yashvil