Citizen X (1995)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is one of my all time favourite pictures. It tells several stories. First about the case of "The butcher of Rostov" who was one of the worst serial killers in the history of the world. Second about the complete and utter hopelessness of the soviet system and bureaucracy, and politicians' convenient ignorance. Third about a man with full intentions to do his job the best way he can, against the system, and against his superiors who should be aiding him but are instead much more concerned about trivialising and keeping the whole thing quiet. The scenes where Burakov walks by the placard of Lenin shows the passage of time, but also that not much is changing. Again depicting the hopelessness of his situation. The film is dark, depressing, serious, and you really feel for Burakov. You end it with a sigh of relief, satisfied that the killer is finally dealt with although his story is equally depressing. He's seen as a loser by his wife, his peers, his superiors, and himself most likely. The only time he succeeds with anything is when he kills. If you have the slightest interest in criminal or soviet history this picture is for you.

Andrei Chikatilo was a serial killer in the Soviet Union. Over the course of twelve years, he murdered 52 women and children in the Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek SSRs. Chris Gerolmo's "Citizen X" focuses on a coroner's investigation into the murders and the government's refusal to report on the murders, since they didn't want to have to admit that there was crime in the USSR (supposedly, such things only existed in the west). Stephen Rea plays the overworked coroner, and Donald Sutherland plays the head of a provincial committee charged with law enforcement, but the movie really belongs to Jeffrey DeMunn as the murderer. He portrays Chikatilo as a disturbed, lonely individual who just happened to be a remorseless killer. One could almost feel sorry for him, were he not a monster.I recommend the movie. It's a safe bet that everyone in the Soviet Union breathed a sigh of relief after that fiend got arrested. The rest of the cast includes Max von Sydow, Joss Ackland, John Wood (Prof. Falken in "WarGames") and Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies).Another movie about Andrei Chikatilo is 2004's "Evilenko", starring Malcolm McDowell as a fictionalized version of him.

Very well presented in a believable way is this story of a serial killer in Russia. It probably could be happening anywhere one might find high ranking officials who refuse to allow a low level investigator the freedom and resources he needs to quickly find the murderer.Donald Sutherland is brilliant as a Russian Colonel who sidesteps and outwits some of his superiors in order to give his team a chance to succeed. The direction is straight forward. No special effects. Some make up and a bit of gore but just enough to make it real.I wonder how many times in history these kinds of political characters have let murders take place rather than admit to their own incompetence. Also the blaming of a particular sexual orientation for something unrelated.Highly recommended. I watched it at Amazon Prime but it might be at NetFlix or elsewhere. There might be a DVD.

"Citizen X" is a movie that it will leave you speechless. It is a really good movie and it's worth seeing. It's also a true story relating of a Russian serial killer who kills his victims, he killed 52 people and 35 of them were children under the age of 17.This movie is really a good because it shows us how the USSR worked and how ware the relationships between the simple people and the people of the party. It also show us how the same things changed after the disruption of USSR.In this movie I liked very much the interpretation of Stephen Rea as Lt. Viktor Burakov and Donald Sutherland as Col. Mikhail Fetisov. I think Stephen Rea made his best interpretation in this movie. Max von Sydow as Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky made an also good interpretation. This movie it really worth seeing...