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Dostoevsky Adapted

As a companion piece to the fall 2021 University of Iowa Main Library Gallery exhibition, From Revolutionary Outcast to a Man of God: Dostoevsky at 200, curated by Dr. Anna Barker, we present a selection of big screen adaptations of the great Russian writer's works.

Film introduction by Dr. Anna Barker. 

Immediately following the screening, please stick around for a special conversation about the film between Dr. Anna Barker and FilmScene Programming Director, Ben Delgado.

"Bold handling of crude unbridled passion, of violently conflicting ideas, and of earthy humor makes up The Brothers Karamazov."—Variety

How could a caring god have cursed man with free will in this world of temptation and evil? Fyodor Dostoyevsky's masterpiece of good and evil, free will and guilt set within a single Russian family bound by jealousy rather than love comes alive in The Brothers Karamazov. Russia, 1870. Fyodor Karamozov (Lee J. Cobb--On The Waterfront) has sired four sons by three women, but has never acted as a father to any of the brothers. The four very different brothers--soldier Dmitri (Academy Award winner Yul Brenner--The King and I), intellectual Ivan (Richard Basehart), pious monk Alexi (William Shatner) and bastard son Smerdjakov (Albert Salmi)--return home to settle a dispute about their inheritance and a rivalry between Fyodor and Dmitri over the beautiful Grushenka (Maria Schell). Now, when Fyodor is murdered, all the evidence implicates an innocent Dmitri, who stands trial for the crime. But in this tangled family web of passion, greed and envy who is guilty, and who is truly innocent