Alan Bates stars as Yakov Bok, an impecunious but astute Jewish farmer, living in Czarist Russia during the turn of the 19th Century, the era of pogroms. After being deserted by his unfaithful wife, he decides to leave the farm and seek work in Kiev, in the guise of a gentile. The intemperate,... [More]

Alan Bates stars as Yakov Bok, an impecunious but astute Jewish farmer, living in Czarist Russia during the turn of the 19th Century, the era of pogroms. After being deserted by his unfaithful wife, he decides to leave the farm and seek work in Kiev, in the guise of a gentile. The intemperate, anti-Semitic Lebedev (Hugh Griffith) hires him as a handyman, and after he's demonstrated his abilities, promotes Yakov to a supervisory position. Yet life remains difficult for the ex-farmer who is bullied by Proshko (Thomas Heatcote), Lebedev's foreman, and he's tormented by a gang of neighborhood kids. When one of these kids is killed, public opinion believes it to a 'ritual murder' for which 'the Jews' must be responsible. When Yakov's origins are discovered, he's arrested and imprisoned, although no formal charges are filed. He can only rely on Bibikov (Dirk Bogarde), the government attorney handling his case, who knows that the prosecutor will try to force Yakov to confess to the crime, in order to stigmatize the Jewish people. [Less]