Which Russian writer's novel did Akira Kurosawa adapt for his 1951 film The Idiot?

Akira Kurosawa adapted Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot for his 1951 film of the same name.

Dostoevsky’s novel, published in 1869, centers on Prince Myshkin, a compassionate and unusually innocent man whose goodness collides with a cynical society. Kurosawa relocates the story to postwar Hokkaido and reshapes the characters and setting while preserving the novel’s concerns with purity, desire, jealousy, and social cruelty.

Masayuki Mori plays the film’s counterpart to Myshkin, Kinji Kameda. Toshiro Mifune plays Denkichi Akama, corresponding broadly to Rogozhin, while Setsuko Hara portrays Taeko Nasu, the figure associated with Nastasya Filippovna. The Japanese cast and snowy setting give the adaptation its own cultural and visual identity.

The film’s production history is unusually troubled. Kurosawa originally made a 265-minute version, but Shochiku demanded severe cuts after a poorly received screening. The original version is considered lost; the longest surviving version runs about 166 minutes. The film also features the Sapporo Snow Festival, which began in 1950.