THE WIZZARD OF THE KREMLIN (2025) DIRECT. OLIVIER ASAYAS ★★★
Journalist of Ukrainian origin Anna Koryagina in the publication The World analyzed the circumstances why the feature film about the political careers of Vladimir Putin and Vladislav Surkov was made in Latvia and the responsible institutions and professionals of the industry distanced themselves from this project. It appears in the article Latvia is in the first place name, as well as individual persons close to the Kremlin. And as the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches, there is no question why this short review should also begin with the political side of why the French author Assayas Kremlin wizard with Paul Deino, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander and other actors known in Hollywood about the political scene, it was made in Latvia.
The film premiered in the main competition of the Venice Film Festival last fall, and has been around ever since Kremlin wizard assessed as a rather vague message. So what does the film want to say and signal in the geopolitical context? On the one hand, the story of the young, ambitious TV worker Vadim Baranov (the prototype for Surkov, played by Deino) and his tricks regarding the Kremlin’s public relations and Putin’s course, is made quite correctly, taking you through the end of the 90s until the annexation of Crimea in 2014. On the other hand, haven’t we already seen somewhere a story about a regime in which there are ambitious people, but the system itself is bad – “because there are no bad people”, and this creates absurd outlines?
The film is based on the widely read novel by Italian author Giuliano da Empoli, which blends fiction with fact. The co-author of the script is Emanuel Karer, who has written many times about Russian culture, who worked with Kirill Serebrennikov on Limonova (2024) – films about the scandalous politician and poet Eduard Limonov. However, no matter how many factors behind the frame coincide with Limonov – partly made in Latvia, reflections on the Russian “flower” and French filmmakers who are interested in Russia -, Kremlin wizard and Assayas’ position on Russia and its policies is much clearer.
Assayas, who has often turned to thrillers with political accents, Wizards of the Kremlin is created as a synopsis – the film suffers significantly from plot jumps, not being able to dwell on any of the plot lines, even though it is made as an ensemble film. And also Assayas’ own style (let’s remember the elegant Irma Vep (1996)!) seemingly blurred in the laconicism of British serials of the beginning of the 2000s and in the industrial neighborhoods of Riga.
The events of the last two decades and Putin’s atrocities are discussed with spotty platitudes, fascinated by the romanticization of Chernuhy and a little out of suffocation with the Latvian actors on the screen, the brightest of whom is Andris Keiš in the form of Yevgeniy Prigozhin. The work would have gained more oxygen if it had been made as a multi-episode film – such star casts attract the Western European viewer, for whom this film will serve as a summary of Russian politics, but without nuances.
Movie selection. Recommended by Dartas Ceriņa
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date:2026-02-08 14:00:00