Vicky Krieps (Corsage, Phantom Thread, Hold Me Tight and German actor Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest, The White Ribbon, White Lotus) have joined the cast of The Idiots, the upcoming feature by Polish filmmakers Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert.
They join previously announced cast members Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn in the feature, which is being sold internationally by The Match Factory.
The drama is adapted from Andrew D. Kaufman’s novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky.
Szumowska and Michał Englert, whose previous joint directorial credits include Woman Of… (2023) and Never Gonna Snow Again (2020), have also co-written the adaptation with Kasper Bajon and Bríd Arnstein. Englert will also serve as cinematographer.
The novel follows the lives of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna during a period that inspired him to write The Idiot. The novel was a commercial flop on its publication but today is considered one of the greatest novels in the history of literature.
It follows their honeymoon trip to Baden which turns into an unexpected, passionate journey in which gambling leads to ruin, in an intimate portrait of the explosive relationship between the writer and his wife.
Krieps and Friedel will be playing supporting roles with Flynn and Wood starring as Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna.
Szumowska is a two-time Silver Bear winner at the Berlinale for Mug (2018) and Body (2015), and won the Locarno Special Jury Prize for 33 Scenes from Life (2008). She has also been nominated for the European Discovery Award for Szczęśliwy człowiek (2001) and Stranger (2005), and for Best European Director for Body at the European Film Awards.
The film is produced by Hype Studios and Gold Rush Pictures. Hype Studios is a Paris and Los Angeles-based production company, known for Persian Lessons (2020) and the Palme d’Or nominee Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie (2024).
Gold Rush Pictures is an international production company whose Club Zero (2023) was a Palme d’Or nominee in the 2023 Cannes Competition, and whose latest film The Light (2025) opened this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Producers are Ilya Stewart and Vladimir Zemtsov.
The post Vicky Krieps & Christian Friedel Join ‘The Idiots’ By Małgorzata Szumowska & Michał Englert appeared first on Deadline.
