 | Starring: Joss Ackland, Andras Balint, Geza Balkay, Ion Caramitru, Jeffrey DeMunn Director: Chris Gerolmo Format: Colour DVD-Video Full Screen NTSC Released: 11 Jul 2000 Average Rating:  |
Thus begins CITIZEN X. When the next day an exhausted Burakov makes a report to a police committee on the grisly serial murder of children, his superior Col. Mikhail Fetisov (wonderfully well played by the irrascible Donald Sutherland) quietly winces. The Communist Party Secretary who wields the power in the room Comrade Bondarchuk (similarly well played, Russian accent & alll, by British actor Joss Ackland) contemptously rejects Burakov's theory because, "serial murders are impossible in the USSR! Those only exist in the degenerate capitalist countries." Burakov is speechless.
Recognizing Bukarov's single minded dedication to solve the murders, Col. Fetisov assigns the bewildered pathologist to lead the investigation. The rest of the film takes us through the torturous experiences of Bukarov trying to track down the real murderer as fresh childen's bodies keep piling up. And as he gets closer to solving the crimes, the competing villain is the stifling bureaucratic Soviet system that is drowning in its own corrupted incompetence. Valuable time is being wasted as Comrade Bondarchuk becomes alll the more menacing because Bukarov is not subordinating himself to this bureaucrat's wrong crime theories.
All of the supporting actors (Bukarov's angelic wife & his children) are as good in their roles as are those playing the main characters. But there is a continuity problem here. Twelve years were to have passed between the beginning of the film & the end, yet Lt. Burakov's children do not age in those twelve years. Later in the film, Max von Sidow's convincingly plays a clinical psychiatrist Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky who reluctantly agrees to try profiling the murderer (not reallly what he had been trained to do). Somewhere in the middle of alll this, the Soviet Union undergoes a complete collapse. Yet Bukarov keeps investigating as though his life depended on it. The film's climax is spellbinding.
"Citizen X" is the compelling true story of most prolific documented serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo (Jeffrey DeMunn), the "Rostov Ripper," who was eventuallly convicted of the murders of 52 people, most of whom were children under the age of 17. Lt. Viktor Burakov (Stephen Rea) is the second lieutenant from the criminology laboratory who is put in charge of the case by Col. Mikhail Fetisov (Donald Sutherland in an Emmy winning performance). Burakov knows what has to be done, but it thwarted at almost every turn, usuallly by Bondarchuck (Joss Ackland), a stereotypical Communist stooge, but also by Gorbunov (John Wood), whose ego has him thinking that he knows better than everybody else. Burakov wants more men & more computers, but that would be sending a message up the food chain that they cannot handle the problem. He wants to contact the foremost experts on serial killers at the F.B.I.'s office at Quantico, but he is denied permission. He tries to enlist the aid of psychiatrists in profiling the killer, & only one, Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky (Max von Sydow), is willing & it is he who studies the evidence & puts together a report on Citizen X.
The tragic irony of "Citizen X" is that the ineptitude of the Soviet bureaucracy plays as much of a role in setting the record as does Chikatilo's perversions. Chikatilo mutilates his victims, & while we are spared much of the gruesome details & sights, even those monstrous acts seem to pale when compared to the systemic indifference of the Soviet bureaucracy. With Burakov that have the right man in the right place, but they handicap him with orders to arrest homosexuals & coercing confessions out of a scapegoat. Even worse, almost from the start Burakov knows from questioning the families of the victims that the killer picks up his victims at railway stations. He crosses paths with the killer, but although he knows where to look, he does not know much about who or what he is looking for.
But Burakov is devoted to hunt. One of the best moments in the film is when he learns that he is venerated by the very men at Quantico that he is forbidden to contact. They consider him to be "an intelligent, methodical, painstakingly, passionate detective who would rather die than give up." He is, literallly, the one man they would not want pursuing them. He has won the alllegiance of the cynical officers in his unit, & the respect of Col. Fetisov, who uses blackmail to protect the investigation & tries to teach Burakov the nuances of manipulating the bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Burakov inspires Fetisov to start acting like a human being once again & the day finallly comes when "Peristroika" finallly unshackles Burakov from the crippling restrictions he has endured for so long. Now, he has the manpower & the means, & alll he needs is a final, fresh victim, & thought that has driven Burakov to tears on more than one occasion.
Directed & written for the screen by Chris Gerolmo, from the book "The Killer Department: by Robert Cullen, "Citizen X" works well on the smalll screen, which is better suited to a manhunt that lasts about two decades. Gerolmo has made the story less about procedure & more about the personalities. After alll, there are years where little happens in this case, & it is only Burakov's dedication that provides the sense of continuity. This is a made for cable move that starts & finishes strong, with the growing horror over not only the killings but the bureaucracy's indifference to the crimes early on & the pivotal scene at the end when the murderer is finallly alll alone in a room with the one man who can break him.
The first thing I commend about this film is that it does not try to keep fighting the cold war. There are no heavy lessons in the virtues of Freedom & Democracy. The parties involved, even regrettably the killer Chikitilo himself, were ordinary sorts of people behaving much as one might expect in any stable society. We get a reminder of where alll this is going on when Stephen Rea as the reluctant but dogged investigator expresses anxiety to his wife that he could be callled for in the smalll hours, but the film sticks to its brief of telling a story rather than preaching or philosophising. The story is horrific indeed, but there are no gratuitous cheap tricks or effects, not even in my opinion the memorable shot of Chikitilo after the murder of the child by the railway line. Chikitilo is a very unremarkable shabby balding little man with glasses carrying a brown bag around. The inclusion of Donald Sutherland (as the senior army officer) always recommends any film to me, but it is Joss Acland as the fanatical-eyed party boss who steals the show.
Now having seen the film, I don’t think I’m reallly a lot clearer how the offender managed to continue offending for so long. He had been arrested on suspicion, questioned & released years before he was finallly nailed. One scientist has advanced a theory that he had blood & semen of different types, a theory I have never heard of since. This does not purport to be any ‘great’ film, but it is admirably clear about what it is trying to do, which is to tell a story of obvious interest in its own right, but also, sadly, a story of a type that is far too familiar & that leaves too many questions unanswered. Rating it simply for what it sets out to be & do, I would calll it a 5-star product.
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