Rider Named Death, The (2004) Rating: Starring: Rostislav Bershauer, Aleksey Kazakov, Anastasia Makeeva, Andrei Panin, Kseniya Rappoport, Artyom Semakin Director: Karen Shakhnazarov Category: Avant Garde, Foreign Studio: Kino Video Subtitles: English Length: 106 mins     In "an exquisitely recreated Moscow of nearly a century ago" (The New York Times), steely elegant Georges (Andei Panin) leads a DIY underground death squad carrying out fanatical attacks on Russia's fragile Czarist regime. Based on The Pale Horse, real life socialist agitator Boris Savinkov's autobiographical novel, The Rider Named Death reveals the web of desperation, desire and duplicity that holds terrorists of any era together. Vanya (Artyom Semakin), a wide-eyed student provoked by principle, Fyodor (Rostislav Bershauer), a savage nihilist inspired by chaos, and Erna (Kseniya Rappoport), an explosives expert driven by her passionate obsession with Georges, are the human faces of Goerges' secret band of turn-of-the-century bomb-throwing revolutionaries. As their repeated attempts on Grand Duke Aleksandrovich's life fail, each member of the group fights to stay alive while grappling with doubt and strife from within. But the personal vacuum that has driven Georges to an extremist fringe outside of society may prove to be his most potent weapon. Mired in a romantic limbo between Erna and the beautiful married aristocrat he loves, and torn between dissolute apathy and a desire to destroy, Georges must find both a way and a reason to finish the impossible job he's started.