Fragment of an Empire Backdrop Blur
Fragment of an Empire Poster
5.7 1h 50m

Fragment of an Empire

Director Frederick Ermler’s last silent feature and the last of four collaborations with actor Fiodor Nikitin. Nikitin plays an officer who spends a decade after the Great War as a shell-shocked amnesiac, until a glimpse of a woman through a train window sparks the return of his memory. He makes his way back to St. Petersburg, now Leningrad, a man out of time who struggles to make sense of the new society brought about by the revolution.

Top Cast

  • Fyodor Nikitin

    Fyodor Nikitin

    Filimonov

  • Lyudmila Semyonova

    Lyudmila Semyonova

    Filimonov's wife

  • Valeri Solovtsov

    Valeri Solovtsov

    Filimonov's wife's new husband

  • Emil Gal

    Emil Gal

    Passenger in the train

  • Yakov Gudkin

    Yakov Gudkin

    The wounded soldier

  • Sergei Gerasimov

    Sergei Gerasimov

  • Vyacheslav Viskovsky

    Vyacheslav Viskovsky

  • Ursula Krug

    Ursula Krug

  • Aleksandr Melnikov

    Aleksandr Melnikov

Overview

Director Frederick Ermler’s last silent feature and the last of four collaborations with actor Fiodor Nikitin. Nikitin plays an officer who spends a decade after the Great War as a shell-shocked amnesiac, until a glimpse of a woman through a train window sparks the return of his memory. He makes his way back to St. Petersburg, now Leningrad, a man out of time who struggles to make sense of the new society brought about by the revolution.

Rating

5.7 / 10
25 Reviews
1 Popular

Recommendations

My Joy

Georgy is driving a load of freight into Russia when, after an unpleasant encounter with the police at a border crossing, he finds himself giving a lift to a strange old man with disturbing stories about his younger days in the Army. After next picking up a young woman who works as a prostitute and is wary of the territory, Georgy finds himself lost, and despite asking some homeless men for help, he’s less sure than he was before of how to make his way back where he belongs. As brutal images of violence and alienation cross the screen, Georgy’s odyssey becomes darker and more desperate until it reaches an unexpected conclusion.

My Joy

6.3 2010