The Idiot(s)

The Idiot(s) (2026)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna travel to Europe for their honeymoon and end up staying in a health resort in Switzerland, only to return to Russia after four years. Fyedya can’t shake his roulette habit and keeps losing their money. His wife accepts this fate since he keeps assuring her that it’s all for inspiration and soon he shall write his to-be masterpiece, 'The Idiot'.

Date of release
2026-09-04
Runtime
1h 58m
Genres
Drama
Director
Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert

Casting

Interesting facts

The Idiot(s) is a 2026 drama film directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, written by Szumowska, Brid Arnstein Michal Englert and Kasper Bajon and based on the novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman. A co-production of Poland and Germany, it stars Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn as Anna and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Production

The project was announced in February 2022 to be entitled The Idiots and directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, who adapted with Kasper Bajon the novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky by Andrew D. Kaufman (2021) which follows the lives of the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna Dostoevskaya through the challenging period of writing his novel, The Idiot.

Matt Dillon was originally attached to star as Fyodor Dostoevsky before Johnny Flynn replaced him in the role in May 2025, with production by Hype Studios and Gold Rush Pictures and producers Lota Dascioraite, Ilya Stewart and Vladimir Zemtsov. Principal photography was scheduled for June 2025 with Michał Englert as cinematographer and co-director. That month, Barbara Marten, Rainer Bock, Vicky Krieps and Christian Friedel joined the cast.

Principal photography started on 16 June 2025 in Poland, with filming locations including Lower Silesia. First-look images from the set were released in July 2025.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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