Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna

Plot

The film starts in December, 1916, just before the Russian Revolution, then moves to 1917s February Revolution, the familys forced move to Siberia in summer, 1917 after Nicholas IIs forced abdication in March, the late-1917 Bolshevik takeover and start of the Russian Civil War and the July, 1918 mass shooting of the family. Afterwards, it revolves around Anna Anderson, who believes that she is Anastasia Romanov, daughter of Nicholas II of Russia. Anna first tells her story in the 1920s when she is an inmate in a Berlin asylum after her suicide attempt. Her story of escape from the Bolsheviks who killed the rest of her family in 1918 seems so vivid that many Russian expatriates are willing to believe her. She slowly gains more trust, but the Romanov family is very resistant to believe her tale and publicly denounces her as an impostor. The movie culminates in 1938 with Anna deciding to sue the Romanovs in Germanys courts to force them to recognize her as Anastasia, but it never reveals if Anna really is Anastasia. The ending epilogue narration says that she eventually moved back to the U.S. and settled in Charlottesville, Virginia where she died in 1984.

Cast

Awards