The simple premise of Leonid Agranovich and Vladimir Semakov’s Chelovek kotoryy somnevaetsya (US: The Man Who Doubts) is one that fits neatly into the narrow confines of permissible crime stories in the Soviet Union: a noble police inspector, doubting the guilt of an accused murderer, sets off to find the real killer and protect the innocent. Celebrating the integrity of the communist regime! The inspector is Mikhail Lekaryev (Georgiy Kulikov), and the setting is a small town in Siberia where snow is omnipresent, breath instantly becomes fog, and daylight rarely appears. Investigating the murder of high school student Tanya Kurilova (Larisa Vikkel), Lekaryev questions the primary suspect, the widely reviled Boris Dulenko (Oleg Dal), along with a series of witnesses, including the boy’s mother (Ivetta Kiselyova), who offer new perspectives that Lekaryev attempts to fit together like glass in a kaleidoscope. The film’s procedural aspect lends it a cool, clinical nature that fits perfectly into the Siberian snow, detection and psychology displacing the action and suspense found in most American noirs, the dramatic weight of Russian cinema always present in the thick shadows and cramped quarters. Also expected from the Russians, the directors add poetic touches throughout, making extensive use of compositing techniques to depict the overlapping testimonies or the ghostlike reenactments in flashback; in fact, Lekaryev even breaks the fourth wall in the film’s final second.