The Wizard of the Kremlin

The Wizard of the Kremlin

2026•2h 36m•6.4/10

Drama

Ratings

🎬TMDb

6.4/10(91)

Russia, early 1990s. Amid post-Soviet chaos, a brilliant young man, Vadim Baranov, charts his path. First an artist, then a reality TV producer, he becomes the spin doctor to a rising KGB agent: Vladimir Putin. At the heart of power, Baranov shapes the new Russia, blurring the boundaries between truth and lies, belief and manipulation. Only the magnetic Ksenia is beyond his control, tempting him away from this dangerous game. Years later, after retreating into silence and shrouded in mystery, Baranov finally opens up, revealing the dark secrets of the regime he helped build.

Open in PickFlick

Production

Curiosa Films, Gaumont, France 2 Cinéma, Tribune Pictures, LB Entertainment, Jeff Rice Films

Language

FR

Status

Released

Release Date

Trailers & Videos

Cast

Paul Dano

Paul Dano

Vadim Baranov

Jude Law

Jude Law

Vladimir Putin

Alicia Vikander

Alicia Vikander

Ksenia

Tom Sturridge

Tom Sturridge

Dmitri Sidorov

Will Keen

Will Keen

Boris Berezovsky

Jeffrey Wright

Jeffrey Wright

Rowland

Andris Keišs

Andris Keišs

Yevgeny Prigozhin

Magne-Håvard Brekke

Magne-Håvard Brekke

Eduard Limonov

Matthew Baunsgard

Matthew Baunsgard

Larry

Anton Lytvynov

Restaurant patron

Alexander M. Johnson

Secretary

Anastasia Sutter

Putin friend

Dan Cade

Dan Cade

Agent Johnson

Tom J. Benedict

Tom J. Benedict

Media-Most Executive

Emmanuel Carrère

Emmanuel Carrère

Varvara Chekhs

Greeter

Kaspars Kambala

Polina Karnicka

Girl at the Club

Sergey Podymin

Restaurant guest / Theater spectator / Lobby bar visitor / Russian Army officer

Andreas Pumilia

Advisor

Recommended

Father Mother Sister Brother

Father Mother Sister Brother

Three stories concerning the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other: a reclusive father visited by his grown children in the US, sisters visiting their novelist mother in Dublin, and adult twins called back to their Paris apartment to address a family tragedy.

Father Mother Sister Brother

2025

6.6

A Year of School

A Year of School

2007. Fred, a 17-year-old girl who just moved from Sweden to Northeast Italy, enrolls for her high school senior year—finding herself the only female student in an all-male class. Lively and good-looking, she quickly becomes the center of attention, especially for three classmates: Antero, charming and reserved; Pasini, a cocky womanizer; Mitis, gruff and sagacious. The three have been best friends for as long as they can remember, but Fred's arrival puts their longstanding bond to the test. As each of the guys secretly desires Fred for himself, she yearns to be accepted into the group and be considered 'one of them', but is asked to sacrifice more and more in order to belong.

A Year of School

2026

Re-Elected

Re-Elected

Friends battle former U.S. presidents when they come back from the dead as zombies on the Fourth of July.

Re-Elected

2020

6.9

When a Stranger Calls

When a Stranger Calls

Far away from the site of a gruesome murder, a teenager named Jill Johnson arrives at a luxurious home for a baby-sitting job. With the children fast asleep, she settles in for what she expects to be an ordinary evening. Soon, the ringing of a phone and the frightening words of a sadistic caller turn Jill's routine experience into a night of terror.

When a Stranger Calls

2006

5.7

Funny Farm

Funny Farm

Sportswriter Andy Farmer moves with his schoolteacher wife Elizabeth to the country in order to write a novel in relative seclusion. Of course, seclusion is the last thing the Farmers find in the small, eccentric town, where disaster awaits them at every turn.

Funny Farm

1988

6.2

Moscow on the Hudson

Moscow on the Hudson

A Russian circus visits the US. A clown wants to defect, but doesn't have the nerve. His saxophone playing friend however comes to the decision to defect in the middle of Bloomingdales. He is befriended by the black security guard and falls in love with the Italian immigrant from behind the perfume counter. We follow his life as he works his way through the American dream and tries to find work as a musician.

Moscow on the Hudson

1984

6.3

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

When a princess is shrunken by an evil wizard, Sinbad must undertake a quest to an island of monsters to cure her and prevent a war.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

1958

6.9

Moscow Gold

Moscow Gold

In an odd destiny coincidence and hospital employee reiceives some important and confident information from a dying old man. He shares it with one friend and both start a crazy and extravangant adventure.

Moscow Gold

2003

5.5

Twitches Too

Twitches Too

Reunited witch twins Camryn and Alex adjust to their new life as supernatural beings while at the same time trying to maintain a normal existence in this sequel to the magical Disney Channel original movie Twitches. But they soon find themselves going head to head with the forces of darkness that threaten to destroy their world. Luckily, their birth mother, the powerful Miranda, is on hand to help out.

Twitches Too

2007

6.7

Re-Kill

Re-Kill

Five years after a zombie outbreak, the men and women of R-Division hunt down and destroy the undead. When they see signs of a second outbreak, they fear humanity may not survive.

Re-Kill

2015

6.0

It Might Get Loud

It Might Get Loud

A documentary on the electric guitar from the point of view of three significant rock musicians: the Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White.

It Might Get Loud

2008

7.2

Loro 2

Loro 2

"Loro", in two parts, is a period movie that chronicles, as a fiction story, events likely happened in Italy (or even made up) between 2006 and 2010. "Loro" wants to suggest in portraits and glimps, through a composite constellation of characters, a moment in history, now definitively ended, which can be described in a very summary picture of the events as amoral, decadent but extraordinarily alive. Additionally, "Loro" wishes to tell the story of some Italians, fresh and ancient people at the same time: souls from a modern imaginary Purgatory who, moved by heterogeneous intents like ambition, admiration, affection, curiosity, personal interests, establish to try and orbit around the walking Paradise that is the man named Silvio Berlusconi.

Loro 2

2018

7.2

Similar Movies

Mirror

Mirror

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

Mirror

1975

8.0

Sugar Baby

Sugar Baby

Love comes without asking. Often not to those, not so and not then. Can a genuine feeling survive when everything started wrong and the whole world is against it? Give up everything or give up? Burn or survive?

Sugar Baby

2024

7.1

Anton Chekhov's The Duel

Anton Chekhov's The Duel

Set in a seaside resort in the Caucasus, the story centers on n'er do well, Laevsky and his illicit relationship with his mistress Nadya. Laevsky has convinced Nadya to leave her husband for him, but now wants to abandon her.

Anton Chekhov's The Duel

2010

5.8

The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov

Ryevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.

The Brothers Karamazov

1958

6.6

Klondike

Klondike

The story of a Ukrainian family living on the border of Russia and Ukraine during the start of the war. Irka refuses to leave her house even as the village gets captured by armed forces. Shortly after they find themselves at the center of an international air crash catastrophe on July 17, 2014.

Klondike

2022

6.5

They Are Here

They Are Here

Dangling from a high window, a young non-binary person is on the cusp of life and death. Flashes of film, literature, art (paintings) and cultural history pass them by, as if to tell a message. A postmodern treatise on connection to culture and the past.

They Are Here

Tchaikovsky's Wife

Tchaikovsky's Wife

Antonina Milyukova is a beautiful and bright young woman, born in the aristocracy of 19th century Russia. She could have anything she'd want, and yet her only obsession is to marry Pyotr Tchaikovsky, with whom she falls in love from the very moment she hears his music. The composer finally accepts this union, but after blaming her for his misfortunes and breakdowns, his attempts to get rid of his wife are brutal. Consumed by her feelings for him, Antonina decides to endure and do whatever it takes to stay with him. Humiliated, disgraced and discarded, she is slowly driven to madness.

Tchaikovsky's Wife

2022

6.3

Fail Safe

Fail Safe

Cold War tensions climb to a fever pitch when a U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered to drop a nuclear warhead on Moscow.

Fail Safe

2000

6.9

Tetris

Tetris

In 1988, American video game salesman Henk Rogers discovers the video game Tetris. When he sets out to bring the game to the world, he enters a dangerous web of lies and corruption behind the Iron Curtain.

Tetris

2023

7.6

The Basement

The Basement

The village of Yahidne in northern Ukraine is coming back to life. Dogs are running around. Gardens and crops are green again. People support one another and families have reunited. In a movement of solidarity, local youth help rebuild what was devastated a year ago when Russian troops occupied the village imprisoning the villagers in the school's basement for a month. The villagers' attitudes alternate between their desire to move forward an remembering the horrors of the past. A heartwarming tribute to resilience and unity.

The Basement

2024

8.0

Bumi Cinta

What would happen if a traditional Islamic student named Muhammad Ayyas lived in a country that upholds free sex and pornography the most, namely Russia? Would his faith and honor be at stake in order to fulfill the worldly desires of young Moscow ladies, whose beauty is unmatched?

Bumi Cinta

Politzek, the voices that challenge the Kremlin

Politzek, the voices that challenge the Kremlin

In Russia, criticizing the war in Ukraine or Vladimir Putin’s regime has become a crime. Thousands of ordinary citizens are being arrested, tried, and imprisoned. They are called “Politzek”: political prisoners. Filmed clandestinely over the course of more than a year, Politzek gives a platform to those who, despite the fear, continue to speak out against Putin’s repressive Russia. Through the intersecting stories of a teenager sentenced to five years in prison for criticizing the government on social media, a young artist jailed for placing anti-war stickers, a human rights activist, and two theater directors facing Kafkaesque trials, the film unveils the machinery of state repression in Russia. With rare footage, broken yet unyielding voices, this is a story of silenced resistance.

Politzek, the voices that challenge the Kremlin

2026