The Wizard of the Kremlin

Versatile auteur Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper, TIFF ’16) adopts a dazzlingly broad canvas to capture this searing insider’s chronicle of post–Cold War Russia. Adapted by Assayas and acclaimed author Emmanuel Carrère from Giuliano da Empoli's 2022 novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin stars Oscar winner Alicia Vikander, Oscar nominees Jude Law and Jeffrey Wright, and Paul Dano (The Fablemans, TIFF ’22) as players in a geopolitical drama where gamesmanship and governance become chillingly blurred.

The year is 2019. An American journalist (Wright) with a longstanding interest in Russian history is invited to the luxurious dacha of Vadim Baranov (Dano), once dubbed “the new Rasputin” for the 15 years he spent as a close advisor to Vladimir Putin (Law).

Having retired from politics, Baranov looks back on his incredible life, from his university days in the immediate post-Soviet era — when he met the love of his life (Vikander) — to his tenure overseeing trashy television shows to his role in transforming a seemingly uncharismatic Federal Security Service chief into Russia’s indomitable president. The Chechen war, the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine, interference in foreign politics, the monopolization of power: these and other colossal events unfolded under Baranov’s watch, whether he approved or not.

Dano perfectly balances cynicism and a sense of wonder in his decades-spanning portrayal of Baranov, a fictional character with much in common with Russia’s former First Deputy Chief Vladislav Surkov, while Vikander renders opportunism indistinguishable from desperation. Law, meanwhile, exudes a ruthless performance that corrodes the soul. Brutal, fascinating, and eerily intimate, this is speculative history as only Assayas can marshal.

ROBYN CITIZEN