‘The Idiot(s)’ by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert Shares First Look

The Match Factory has shared the first image from The Idiot(s), a new film by award-winning Polish filmmakers Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert.

The film stars actors Aimee Lou Wood (White Lotus, Sex Education, Living), and Johnny Flynn (Ripley, One Life, Beast), Vicky Krieps (Father Mother Sister Brother, Corsage, Phantom Thread, Hold Me Tight) and the acclaimed actor Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest, The White Ribbon, White Lotus).

It is based on the novel “The Gambler’s Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky” by Andrew D. Kaufman, published in 2021, which follows the lives of the famous writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna during a period that inspired him to write The Idiot – at the time a commercial flop, but today, considered one of the greatest novels in the history of literature.

Here is the official synopsis: Anna and Fiedya’s honeymoon trip to Baden turns into an unexpected, passionate journey where reality blends with imagination, East meets West, and gambling leads to ruin. An intimate portrait of the explosive relationship between the writer and his courageous wife, as they struggle with obstacles and pursue their vision of creating a soon-to-be masterpiece: The Idiot.

The Idiot(s) marks the latest directorial collaboration between Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert, with Englert also taking on cinematography.

Szumowska is a two-time Silver Bear winner at the Berlinale for Mug (2018) and Body (2015), and won the Locarno Special Jury Prize for 33 Scenes from Life (2008). She has also been nominated for the European Discovery Award for Szczęśliwy człowiek (2001) and Stranger (2005), and for Best European Director for Body at the European Film Awards.

Szumowska and Englert’s work as co-directors has been widely recognized, with their previous films Woman Of… (2023) and Never Gonna Snow Again (2020) both premiering in Competition at the Venice Film Festival. Englert is also a recipient of the Sundance Cinematography Award for Lasting (2013), a five-time Polish Film Awards nominee for Best Cinematography, and a six-time nominee at the prestigious Camerimage Festival.