Strogoff

Strogoff (French: Michel Strogoff, le courier du tsar; Italian: Michele Strogoff, corriere dello zar; German: Der Kurier des Zaren) is a European adventure film directed in 1970 by Eriprando Visconti. It was an international co-production between Italy, West Germany and France. It is based on Jules Verne's 1876 novel Michael Strogoff reinterpreted through the lens of psychological realism. Plot Michael Strogoff, captain of the army of the Tsar Alexander II, is ordered to travel from Moscow to Irkutsk, in eastern Siberia, to inform the Grand Duke Dmitry that the Tartar army is moving to conquer the city. He leaves for Siberia in civilian clothes, in the guise of a horse trader and under the false name of Nikolai Korpanov. At the same time Ivan Ogareff, a Russian ex-colonel, is freed from a prison camp by his lover Sangarre. He joins the insurgent Tartars led by Feofar-Khan and undertakes Strogoff's same journey to learn the purpose of the Tsar's courier's mission. During the journey Strogoff makes the acquaintance of Nadja Fëdorova, a young Latvian woman who intends to visit her husband Vasilij Fëdor, a military doctor kept in prison in Irkutsk due to his socialist ideals. Believing that he would arouse less suspicion, Strogoff decides to share the journey with her. During a stop in an izba used as a place to rest and change horses, he meets Ogareff, in the uniform of a Russian officer, who aggressively and insolently demands the troika for the sleigh which would rightfully belong to Strogoff. In order not to blow his camouflage, he passively accepts the insults, arousing some suspicion in Nadja.