Citizen X is a made-for-TV movie, released in 1995, which gives a fictionalised account of the Ukrainian serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo - who killed 52 people - and the efforts of detectives in the Soviet Union to capture him. The film was directed by Chris Gerolmo, was based on a book by Robert Cullen, and stars Stephen Rea as Detective Viktor Burakov, Donald Sutherland as Col. Mikhail Fetisov, his commanding officer, Max von Sydow as Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky, a psychologist assisting in the case, and Jeffrey DeMunn as the killer.
As well as being a crime thriller, the movie tries to make a serious point about propaganda and bureaucracy contributing to the failure to capture Chikatilo, since his crimes were not widely reported for fear of revealing that such things occurred in the "perfect" Soviet Union.
In CitizenX, set in the last decade of Soviet Russia, the angry captain asking for the detectives badge is replaced by the secretary of ideology, and instead of a police department corrupted by bribery there is a department corrupted by apathy and the Communist party.
CitizenX is a solid procedural, strengthened by its ability to draw connections between the investigation and the tragedy of communism, as well as a heart-wrenching performance by Stephen Rea as the hangdog detective broken by his investigation.
Perhaps the most moving scene in CitizenX is when Rea hears that, for years, FBI teachers have been describing him to students as the most tenacious investigator in the world.
CitizenX is an HBO original movie starring Stephen Rea and Donald Sutherland and is based on the true story of one of the most savage serial killers in history.
CitizenX killed 52 people, most of which were under 17, in a period of eight years in Russia.
CitizenX was a very well done movie about the terrifying true story of a serial killer.
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