Desyat Negrityat (1987)

Original title

Десять негритят

Directed by

Stanislav Govorukhin

Genre

thriller film, detective film

Country

Soviet Union

Runtime

2h 17m

Rated

16+

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 82 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Ten strangers are lured to a remote island mansion under false pretences. They are accused of past crimes by a mysterious host and begin dying one by one according to a nursery rhyme.

tensesuspensefulbleakclaustrophobicslow-burngrimunsettlingmethodical

What happens

Desyat Negrityat (Russian: Десять негритят, 'Ten Little Negroes') is a 1987 Soviet mystery thriller film adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name, now known as And Then There Were None. It was directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, who also penned the script. This version was, upon its release, unique in that virtually no part of the novel is altered (although a sexual relationship between Vera and Lombard is introduced, and the latter's revolver is changed into a small automatic pistol). Unlike the previous Hollywood/British adaptations of the story, none of the characters or their respective crimes are altered in any way and the film concludes with the grim finale from Agatha Christie's original novel, rather than the upbeat ending from the 1943 stage version that most other adaptations chose to follow. The Soviet adaptation is a bit more fanciful in that the murderer expounds at some length, in solitude, about their methodology and the critical twist (aloud instead of on paper as in the novel). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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