One of my all time favorites.

I wanted to but couldn't!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Andrei Chikatilo was a serial killer in the Soviet Union. Over the course of twelve years, he murdered 52 women and children in the Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek SSRs. Chris Gerolmo's "Citizen X" focuses on a coroner's investigation into the murders and the government's refusal to report on the murders, since they didn't want to have to admit that there was crime in the USSR (supposedly, such things only existed in the west). Stephen Rea plays the overworked coroner, and Donald Sutherland plays the head of a provincial committee charged with law enforcement, but the movie really belongs to Jeffrey DeMunn as the murderer. He portrays Chikatilo as a disturbed, lonely individual who just happened to be a remorseless killer. One could almost feel sorry for him, were he not a monster.I recommend the movie. It's a safe bet that everyone in the Soviet Union breathed a sigh of relief after that fiend got arrested. The rest of the cast includes Max von Sydow, Joss Ackland, John Wood (Prof. Falken in "WarGames") and Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies).Another movie about Andrei Chikatilo is 2004's "Evilenko", starring Malcolm McDowell as a fictionalized version of him.

Somehow, I feel compelled to write this so others opt to not watch the movie or at least watch it without high expectations. I was looking to catch a thriller and enjoy a movie. This title came up as being similar to "Silence of the Lambs". I seriously question the comparison, as this movie didn't contain much suspense and it is trite with poor dialogue, a generic structure, and atrocious accents that don't even sustain themselves throughout the film. The story is reasonably interesting, sure, and the killer himself is okay in his part (probably because he rarely has to open his mouth), but the execution and overall product were nowhere near engaging. I simply cannot agree that there is much to be applauded about the movie, and I don't see many redeeming features of it.Take a pass if you think you're going to hear creepy music, see high-quality performances, and/or witness solid cinematography.

What is is brilliant about this story is the persistence of the lead detective to find the killer.Interestingly the Commissar said that 'there are no killers in the Soviet Union, that is in decadent western societies" Of course we all get the point. But here in the mid-west in a college town in a lefty book store of the the owners actually said that crime in America is because they are a capitalistic empire. Some left wing ideas never die.Now, back to the movie, it was great and the quips by the Colonel and his astute observations or Soviet society were appro. In fact, most Russians found ways to work outside the system.But my favorite scene was when they caught Chilikto He is in a park and children are playing the the plain clothes police come up on him from the sides, front and back and tell him to 'keep walking'.. One of the most brilliant arrests I have ever seein. The opposite of course of our cops yelling for him to get on the ground and every manner of gun pointed at him.Great film.

This is a compelling drama. I agree with comments praising Stephen Rae, Donald Sutherland and Geoffrey DeMunn for their performances. I would add further commend the atmospheric music by Randy Edelman. It is one of the few films I can watch repeatedly and not get tired of it.But, it is not the whole truth. Yes, there was a serial killer Chikatilo, and yes he was hunted down with a relentless determination by Burakov with the help of Fetisov. But these real men and their methods were not the characters portrayed by Rea and Sutherland. Burakov was a man of the Soviet system who believed in it and applied its methods in his work. These methods included "obtaining confessions from suspects". It was this fixation with obtaining confessions under duress that was one reason the police wasted years chasing false leads. It would not have generated sympathy in Western audiences to have shown this story - so the reality was changed to fit the fable of a lonely hero fighting a bungling system.Read Robert Cullen's "The Killer Departmen" for the full (real) story. Watch the film for a first-class detective yarn in exotic circumstance.