Overview
The Popular Front wins elections, the Spanish Civil War begins, and Hitler and Stalin are manipulating and spying. The brilliant exile, Fiodor Voronin, a general at 20, is the deputy at the White Russian Military Union, probably slated to replace the aging Général Dobrinsky soon. Fiodor's Greek wife, Arsinoé, paints and stays away from politics, befriending Communist neighbors. Her health declines; the attentive Fiodor arranges care and, against the backdrop of Stalin's Great Purge, considers his options. He plays a chess game in which love of country, love of Arsinoé, ideology, petty jealousies, and the machinations of power roil in matters of life and death.
Director
Éric Rohmer
Cast
Katerina Didaskalou
Arsinoé
Serge Renko
Fiodor
Cyrielle Clair
Maguy
Grigori Manoukov
Boris
Dimitri Rafalsky
général Dobrinsky
Nathalia Krougly
la Générale
Amanda Langlet
Janine
Emmanuel Salinger
André
