Citizen X

Citizen X
Directed by	Chris Gerolmo
Produced by	Timothy Marx Robert Stone Webster Stone
Written by	Robert Cullen Chris Gerolmo
Starring	Stephen Rea Donald Sutherland Max von Sydow Jeffrey DeMunn Joss Ackland John Wood Radu Amzulescu Imelda Staunton
Music by	Randy Edelman
Cinematography	Robert Fraisse
Editing by	William Goldenberg

Citizen X is a made-for-TV film, released in 1995, which covers the investigation of the Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted in 1992 of killing 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990, and the efforts of detectives in the Soviet Union to capture him.

Synopsis

The film tells the story of the seven-year hunt by forensic specialist Viktor Burakov for the person who mutilated and murdered over 50 children and young women. Burakov is aided, covertly at first, by his commanding officer, Col. Mikhail Fetisov and later by Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky, a psychiatrist.

As well as being in the form of a crime thriller, the movie depicts Soviet propaganda and bureaucracy contributing to the failure to capture the killer; his crimes were not widely reported for fear of revealing that such things ever occurred in the USSR.

Production

The movie was entirely shot in Hungary. The station where Chikatilo picks his victims is the Hatvan railway station, northeast of Budapest. The smaller, arched train shelter scene was shot in Nagymaros. Several other scenes were shot in the Gödöllő Railway Station. The film was directed by Chris Gerolmo, who also wrote the screenplay adapted from the book The Killer Department by Robert Cullen.

Cast

• Stephen Rea - Viktor Burakov
• Donald Sutherland - Mikhail Fetisov
• Jeffrey DeMunn - Andrei Chikatilo
• Max von Sydow - Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky
• Joss Ackland - Bondarchuk
• John Wood - Gorbunov
• Imelda Staunton - Mrs. Burakov

Awards

• CableACE Awards
  • Best Movie or Miniseries
  • Best Supporting Actor in a Movie or Miniseries (DeMunn)
• Edgar Awards
  • Best TV Feature or MiniSeries (Gerolmo)
• Emmy Awards
  • Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special (Sutherland)
• Golden Globe Awards
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV (Sutherland)

External links

• Citizen X at the Internet Movie Database
• Serge Schemann, "The Man in the Iron Cage: A Russian Horror Story", 30-jul-1992, The New York Times
• Katherine Ramsland, "Andrei Chikatilo, the Rostov Ripper serial killer" and photo gallery