Film

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Name: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Released: 2024
Cast: Nash Nørgaard, Phee Simpson, Gordon Stackhouse, Finn Tyson, Alex Levin

Drama
Very dark
Slow-burning

A 30-minute adaptation of Tolstoy's novella about a successful Russian magistrate whose injury forces a reckoning with how he's actually lived. Quiet, intimate, philosophical without being ponderous. For anyone who's felt the sudden vertigo of realizing you've built the wrong life.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love close attention to a single man's inner reckoning, where small domestic details carry real weight and a short film still feels like a full novel's worth of thought.

Skip it if you want brisk plot or a story that moves outward, since this stays cramped in rooms and inside one man's head, with a slow, airless mood that can feel punishing.

What it asks of you: A sitting of barely half an hour, but every minute asks for stillness: quiet scenes, long pauses, and sustained attention to what a grim interior life looks like.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Ikiru1952

Kurosawa's masterpiece about a dying bureaucrat discovering meaning through small acts of kindness. Same engine as Tolstoy—a successful man confronting mortality and recognizing what he's missed. Deeply moving without sentimentality.

But Japanese cinema from the 1950s, in black and white, nearly three hours long. The pace is deliberate; it requires patience and attention.

The Farewell2019

A family gathers as a relative dies, forcing everyone to examine what they owe each other and how to live before it's too late. Like Ivan Ilyich, it finds profound grace in ordinary moments and difficult truths about relationships.

But Shifts between English and Mandarin without subtitles for the latter. Some may find the tone—mixing humor with grief—emotionally disorienting.

The Straight Story1999

David Lynch's only G-rated film: an elderly man drives a lawnmower across Iowa to reconcile with his estranged brother before he dies. Achingly tender. The same quiet acceptance of mortality, the same attention to how we've treated each other.

But Deliberately paced, almost meditative. If you're expecting Lynch's usual darkness, you'll find something stranger—pure sincerity.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Death of Ivan Ilyich

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things2020

Both strip away the illusion of a life well-lived and force the protagonist into the truth of non-existence or unlived potential. Structure mirrors crisis: fragmentation, repetition, recursive awareness.

Charlie Kaufman's adaptation of Iain Reid's novel about a woman visiting her boyfriend's parents, reality fragmenting. Like Ivan Ilyich, it's about recognizing you've been living inauthentically, becoming a stranger to yourself. Surreal where the Tolstoy is realist, but identical in moral force.

But Deliberately confusing, with a runtime that stretches into uncomfortable territory. Many will find it frustrating rather than profound; the experimental form alienates viewers who prefer clarity.

Bicycle Thieves1948

Italian neorealism at its peak: a man loses his bicycle and spirals into desperation, his relationship with his son fracturing. Like Ivan Ilyich, it's about how poverty and circumstance strip away the life we thought we were building.

But Post-war Italian cinema, subtitled, about economic precarity. Not uplifting. The ending is deliberately painful.

Another Year2010

Mike Leigh's portrait of a contented couple and the struggling people who orbit their happiness. Examines how we construct our lives, who we're kind to, and what we owe the people we've left behind. Subtle and ruthless.

But Bleak. The comedy is dark and observational; if you're looking for warmth or resolution, you won't find it.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Kenneth Lonergan's film about grief and the ways we avoid ourselves. A man must confront his past and a life he didn't choose. Quietly devastating; it understands how people actually struggle with regret and connection.

But Emotionally heavy. The protagonist is isolated and depressed throughout; there's little catharsis or uplift.

The Remains of the Day1993

A butler driven by duty realizes, too late, that he's sacrificed everything that mattered. Merchant-Ivory's finest work. A precise, aching meditation on how we rationalize the lives we didn't live.

But Restrained to the point of opacity. Anthony Hopkins plays a man afraid to feel; his performance can read as cold rather than tragic.

Boyhood2014

Filmed over twelve years, Linklater's film watches a boy become a man, accumulating small moments of joy and disappointment. The shape of an actual life, not a plot. It understands how subtly we become who we are.

But Three hours and fifteen minutes. Some find the real-time aging gimmick distracting rather than moving.

The Turin Horse2011

Béla Tarr's apocalyptic film about the final days of Friedrich Nietzsche. Bleak and hypnotic, it's about consciousness declining, meaning dissolving. Structurally radical and philosophically demanding in ways that echo Tolstoy's questioning.

But Black and white, slow, repetitive, and unrelentingly dark. It's an experience of deterioration, not a narrative. Most viewers will find it difficult.

The Souvenir2019

Both are about the gap between the life we imagine for ourselves and the life we're actually living. Ivan Ilyich spent decades in comfortable self-deception; the student in Souvenir is doing it in real time, unable to see it.

Joanna Hogg's film about a young art student in love with an older, manipulative man. It's about failing to see what's in front of you, prioritizing fantasy over reality. The opposite angle on Ivan Ilyich—youth squandering itself instead of age recognizing it squandered.

But Formal and austere. Shot on Super 16, deliberately unpolished. The protagonist is frustratingly passive; if you need characters to act, this will irritate you.

The Last Broadcast1998

Ivan Ilyich built a social self that became the only self he knew. The Last Broadcast explores how documentation and performance can hollow out a person's relationship to truth, making authenticity impossible to recover.

Found-footage mystery about a media spectacle gone wrong. Documentary interspersed with dramatization, blurring truth and performance. Sounds nothing like Tolstoy—until you realize it's about how we construct false selves for public consumption, how performance erodes authenticity.

But Cheaply made, grainy, formally disorienting. The narrative is deliberately fractured; it requires active assembly from the viewer. Feels like a curiosity rather than a finished film.

People

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Where to watch

Not streaming anywhere we can see.

Checked 18 October 2026.

Age rating

We do not know what this is rated.

Ratings come from the people who assign them in each country, and they do not mean the same thing in any two. We show the one given where you are.

Released: 2024
Status: Released
Runtime: 30 min