“No one is safe in Russia.” By deciding to bring Giuliano da Empoli's excellent novel The Wizard of the Kremlin to the big screen in English, Olivier Assayas knew he had exceptionally rich material that was highly sensitive politically in the context of the current war in Ukraine. Da Empoli is a highly informed writer and astute analyst of contemporary changes in populism and mass manipulation (as evidenced by his essays The Engineers of Chaos and The Hour of the Predators).

The film, unveiled in competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, reconstructs from the inside, in flashbacks and through the eyes of a highly influential secondary character, a vast swathe of Russia's recent history, from the winds of freedom brought by perestroika to the invasion of Crimea in 2014, the first major burst of a vertical power system methodically put in place over the previous 15 years (based on fear, threats from the shadows, control of irrational rage and the shock weight of killings) and which has continued to escalate ever since.

“If you don't seize power, it will seize you.” For Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano, perfect in his almost unfathomable opacity), Gorbachev's new Russia, having buried communism, is an exhilarating blank slate where wild nights of partying follow days spent staging Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We at the theatre (a prescient nod, since this science fiction work written under Stalin evokes a totalitarian state). But very quickly, under the influence of his neo-capitalist friend Sidorov (Tom Sturridge) and out of love for the beautiful Ksenia (Alicia Vikander), the young man becomes a television reality show producer, earning himself the nickname “the magician” and crossing paths with the oligarch Boris Berezovsky (Will Keen). He is then tasked with ensuring the re-election of the puppet Boris Yeltsin as president at all costs. But once the mission is accomplished, a successor must be found, and Berezovsky thinks of Vladimir Putin (Jude Law, remarkably credible), then head of the FSB. Thus began an operational partnership between Vadim the acrobat and the gambler and the new “Tsar” that would resemble Orpheus' descent into the Underworld. For power is addictive, but death is final…

Directed with masterful fluidity and an impressive array of sets that energise the behind-the-scenes political games that drive the plot (a screenplay written by the director with Emmanuel Carrère), the film succeeds in recreating a more than plausible Russia and is brimming with details (the Second Chechen War, the sinking of the Kursk, the elimination of the oligarchs, the Ukrainian Orange Revolution, the Sochi Olympics, etc.) without ever losing its thread. We encounter Limonov, Prigozhin, Sechin, the Night Wolves bikers (because it is necessary to “monopolise power but also subversion”) and many others. This profusion is managed at the pace of a thrilling thriller (shifting from dark comedy to dramatic echoes that resonate cruelly with the current conflict) for a ruthless theatre of shadows and masks accessible to a very wide audience.

The Wizard of the Kremlin was produced by Curiosa Films and Gaumont (who handles international sales), and co-produced by France 2 Cinéma.