The Degraded

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The Degraded
A shot from the film
Directed by	Alexander Sokurov
Written by	Alexander Sokurov,
Starring	Ilya Rivin, Viktoriya Yurizditskaya, Irina Sokolova, Evgeniy Mishenko, Andrei Petrov, Sergei Koshonin
Music by	A. Mikhailov
Distributed by	Mosfilm, Lenfilm
Release date(s)	1980
Running time	30 minutes
Country	USSR
Language	Russian
IMDb profile

The Degraded (Russian: Разжалованный) is the second film by Alexander Sokurov. It was released in 1980 and is only 30 minutes long.

[edit] Background

This film was Sokurov's first feature at Lenfilm. It was roughly based on a short story by the contemporary Soviet writer Grigoriy Baklanov, however Baklanov asked for his name to be removed from the credits because he felt that Sokurov's film deviated too much from his story artistically. The only motif that was adopted from Baklanov was the transitional period - in this case from power to subordinance.

The main actor, Ilya Rivin, was an amateur and appeared in three further movies by Sokurov.

[edit] Miscellanea

Sokurov's first film, The Lonely Voice of Man appears in The Degraded when the main protagonist is in a movie theater, even though it was not recognized as existing at that time by the Soviet authorities.