Polish director Aleksandr Ford made a film of The First Circle in 1972. Faithful to the book, the movie builds upon the conversations and debates of the characters. Most reviewers found the film too "talky" as a result, and it never achieved popular success. The plight of the Mavrino zeks symbolized the situation of many intellectuals under the Soviet regime: They could savor the good life as long as they pleased their jailers. Ford headed the Polish film industry under Soviet control for almost two decades before emigrating to Western Europe. Solzhenitsyn thought the film poorly made.