The Idiot(s) (2026)- BFI London Film Festival 2026

Review

118min

Genre:       Fact-based, Biography, Comedy, Drama

Director:    Michal Englert and Malgorzata Szumowska

Cast:         Aimee Lou Wood, Johnny Flynn, Christian Friedel…and more

Writers:     Michal Englert, Malgorzata Szumowska, Brid Arnstein…

-Synopsis-

Staying in southwestern Germany in self-imposed exile to escape his debts in mother Russia, a chaotic Fyodor Dostoevsky struggles against the pull of booze and gambling while his devoted new wife Anna is determined to help subdue his vices and re-ignite his creative fires, as they charm the high-society locals and create chaos whilst enduring personal tragedy, hoping to turn things around on the way to creating iconic literature and finally taking the reins of their family’s destiny.

Having spent years building their respective careers in Polish cinema and then collaborating on and off the screen for years thereafter, prominent Polska filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska returns with cinematographer turned writer/director and former spouse Michal Englert to take on an illustrious Russian writing legacy and 19^th century European history, focusing their rebellious and subversive lens on a tumultuous literary partnership to loosely adapt Andrew D. Kaufman’s 2021 novel ‘The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky’ and give us a chaotic and unflattering period dramedy portrait of spousal support, and the women behind the distinguished men.

Aimee Lou Wood stars as Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevskaya, recently married and away from headaches at home on an indefinite stay in the picturesque mid 1800s German spa town of Baden-Baden, where she battles with managing the dwindling family finances and preventing the downward spiral of her new husband Fyodor Dostoevsky (Johnny Flynn), the celebrated but belligerent, histrionic and often inebriated Russian writer now struggling with artistic inspiration and slipping deeper into a gambling addiction. Both becoming increasingly exasperated by their situation as they fall into a comedy of errors, crossing paths with colourful and canny local characters like fellow Russian writer ex-pat and manipulative dandy Ivan Turgenev (Christian Friedel), and debauched aloof local aristocrat Natasha F. (Vicky Krieps), as Anna tries to keep their marriage and her sanity together whilst they head towards tragedy . . . but also a shot at turning a corner and finally finding their way.

If you’re looking for strict historical accuracy or a fully faithful representation of its subjects then ‘The Idiot(s)’ might not be the biographical film for you, as the writer/directors and their co-writers take plenty of artistic license in depicting a one-sided, sexually kinky and rather simple version of Fyodor Dostoevsky that’s not much more than a pure mess of a human being, further elevating the film’s real perspective protagonist Anna Dostoevskaya as the standalone pillar of reason in the muddled marriage at the heart of the picture, and indeed in the whole movie.

Inspired by Dostoevsky’s own 1869 novel ‘The Idiot’ and its origins, and Andrew D. Kaufman’s source novel for the film while perhaps fuelled by the recent wave of irreverent subversive cinematic takes on history from a female perspective—as seen in the likes of Marie Kreutzer’s rebellious revision of an Austro-Hungarian Empress in 2022’s ‘Corsage’—Szumowska and Englert are relatively ruthless when taking on the complex main male protagonist here. Focusing almost exclusively on his many flaws with little sense of why we still know his name, depicting Dostoevsky not only as an often impulsive and infantile, churlish and volatile trainwreck with alcohol issues and an even bigger gambling problem, but for some reason also a sexual submissive with kinky proclivities. Brought to life by the talents of reliably adept Anglo-South African star Johnny Flynn who gets the chance to really let loose and chew up the scenery in riotous style but also inject a bit of pathos when the tone of the film turns.

Meanwhile Aimee Lou Wood as his long-suffering and devoted wife Anna is the heart of the piece and the main focus of the narrative, as well as the straight man in this chaotic double act, as the rising Manchester screen star delivers a delightful and charismatic yet melancholy turn as the sane and relatable rock of the marriage, and the film. Yet despite two sterling central performances, the depiction of the relationship is lacking substance or nuance and is limited to a chaotic and small but stretched out period in their lives, and there’s no real sense of the artistically fruitful and pioneering partnership that would evolve from their union.

There’s a little more colour added to the narrative thanks to the efforts of the supporting cast, led by Luxembourgish star Vicky Krieps as indifferent and wanton local noblewoman Natasha who proves a troublesome temptress for the Dostoevskys, and German actor Christian Friedel who shines with a colourful and nonchalant performance as their devious fellow Russian frenemy and Fyodor’s pompous writing foil Ivan Turgenev.

‘The Idiot(s)’ certainly isn’t lacking in style either, impeccably dressed in period garb and featuring sterling makeup and production design to vividly re-create the era, all shot by co-director and veteran cinematographer Michal Englert himself in picturesque Polish locales and lavish locations mostly in the southwest region of Lower Silesia, which was part of Germany at the time of the film’s mid-19^th century setting. Meanwhile the mood is set and the shenanigans energised by a largely period-appropriate sumptuous soundtrack led by classical music and featuring everything from grand symphonies and organ pieces to piano concertos, blended with the more idiosyncratic tones of Russian folk tunes, French organ music and some gypsy violin flavour.

Despite ‘The Idiot(s)’ ending before truly capturing the remarkable achievement of Anna Dostoevskaya in reversing her husband’s freefall and her contribution to his historic legacy, not to mention her own achievements as a pioneering female publisher in Russia, and even though the balance between the comedy and drama is off and the depiction of their relationship proving unconvincing and flimsy, the film does often soar on the strength of its chaotic and absurdist humour.

‘The Idiot(s)’ is at its most delightful when it leans on the fish-out-of-water, clash-of-cultures comedy of an intellectual down-on-his-luck middle-class man from Tsarist Russia in high society Germany, packing ridiculous situations with outrageous behaviour and plenty of dry, farcical and occasionally surrealist humour, while just about managing to blend it with pathos and grief, as the writer/directors apply Western wit and whimsy to the Russian and East-European history and tradition of pain and suffering—a tradition artistically mastered by Dostoevsky himself.

The Bottom Line…

A subversive and droll Dostoevsky 19^th century tragicomedy and riotous biographical costume drama portrait of the woman who saved a Russian literary legend, ‘The Idiot(s)’ may not scale the narrative heights befitting its subject matter or leave a truly indelible cinematic impression, but its reframing of history is bold and funny enough to broadly entertain and leave enough of a mark, thanks in no small part to the talents and efforts of its two British stars.

‘The Idiot(s)’ has no confirmed release dates currently.

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