The Inner Circle

The Inner Circle (Ближний круг) is a 1991 Russian film by Andrei Konchalovsky based on the true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was the private film projectionist of Iosif Stalin from 1939 until the dictator's death in 1953. Told from Sanchin's view, the sympathetic but tragically flawed hero maintains unwavering faith in his "Master" despite the arrest of his neighbors and his involvement with their daughter, his wife's affair with the chilling State Sec chief Lavrentii Beria and her tragic decline, and the deadly political machinations within the Kremlin he witnesses firsthand.

Tropes used in The Inner Circle include:

• Crowning Music of Awesome: The theme by Eduard Artemyev.
• Did You Just Have Tea With Cthulhu
• Public Domain Character: Iosif Stalin and Lavrenti Beria.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The songs "Shiroka strana moya rodnaya" and "Hello Country of Heroes" are heard, as well as excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique" and Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp Minor.
• Wicked Cultured: Stalin.