a pawnbroker. and a young girl. few meetings. and a decision. than, the shadows of past, the silence, the area of hell in two. adaptation of a story by Dostoievsky, it preserves the atmosphere of text. and something more. the Expresionism reflected by the huge white room, the use of shadows, the looks of Iya Savvina who gives to her character admirable force and fragility, the confession of husband who, in the performance of Andrei Popov, reflecting the theater experience, is far to be surprising are pieces who defines one of precise adaptation of period. the intensity of acting, the angles, the music, the cinematography, the city as character and scene and cage are virtues of a film who impress for the wheel known recipes of Soviet cinema. the theme is not new and the cinema from East was inspired in many occasion by it - the Romanian adaptations Ciuleandra or Noiembrie, ultimul bal are easy examples. but the film of Aleksandr Borisov has the gift to present more than a story. and that is the source of fascination for a film about the mask and fear and sacrifice.