The Rider Named Death (2005)

Synopsis: An active participant in the killing of Russian governors and ministers (including the 1904 assassination of Interior minister V. K. Plehve), Boris Savinkov (1879-1925) became a leader of the terrorist faction of Russia's Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Perceived as moderates next to... An active participant in the killing of Russian governors and ministers (including the 1904 assassination of Interior minister V. K. Plehve), Boris Savinkov (1879-1925) became a leader of the terrorist faction of Russia's Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Perceived as moderates next to the Bolshevik party—which campaigned for a Communist revolution—the Socialist-Revolutionaries were a key segment of a broad leftist coalition opposing the regime of Nicholas II, the last Russian Tzar, before the Bolshevik Party assumed power in 1917. THE RIDER NAMED DEATH is based on The Pale Horse, the 1909 novel by Boris Savinkov. Early twentieth-century Russia is shocked by a series of cold-blooded assassinations carried out by the notorious Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, a radical left-wing group that seeks political power by terrorizing high government officials. The group's fanatical and cynical mastermind is George, himself an assassin, a man willing to die for his delusional ideals. His accomplices are the bomb-maker Erne, who is passionately devoted to him, and bomb throwers Vanya, a romantic and naïve student, and Fyodor, a worker leading a miserable, joyless life. Their main objective is to assassinate Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich, the Moscow governor general. Focusing on the group's aspirations and their strongly contrasting feelings, THE RIDER NAMED DEATH tells a story of terror used as a last resort to achieve love, revenge, and a better future for the world's largest nation. An in-depth exploration of the motives and intellectual justifications of a revolutionary assassin, THE RIDER NAMED DEATH portrays these controversial events with rare complexity, showing the diverse background of those who joined the terrorist cause against the crumbling Russian Tzar regime at the turn of the century. -- © Kino International [More]