Kozintsev approached the play by creating a total environment for his characters to dwell in - a vast no-man’s land of moor and marsh populated by small communities in primitive castles and clusters of farm dwellings. He has made a superb film which from its beginning portends a tottering natural order and is filled with true Shakespearian energy, a mood doubly enhanced by the splendid score by Shostakovich which lifts the film onto an epic plane. In Russian with English subtitles.