The Wizard of the Kremlin

This dramatisation of modern-day Russia’s return to totalitarian, fear-based rule after a brief flirtation with openness focuses not primarily on its tsar-like leader Vladimir Putin, but on a one-time artist and spin doctor serving as his right-hand ideologue.

It’s fitting, because Russia is now run like post-modernist theatre; a surreal and shape-shifting land of smoke and mirrors, where the agency of citizens is neutralised by confusing them, and threats are disguised by sleight of hand.

Jude Law impresses as the poker-faced President who rose ruthlessly after the Soviet Union fell apart in the turbulent, opportunistic 90s, in this English-language adaption by Olivier Assayas of Giuliano da Empoli’s best-selling book. But it’s Paul Dano that steals the show as Vadim Baranov, who is loosely based on Putin aide Vladislav Surkov.

Baranov is drawn to avant-garde theatre in the flashy decadence of the Yeltsin years (Alicia Vikander brings a glittering edge as his freedom-hungry girlfriend). It’s just a small step from producing wild spectacles and reality television to stage-managing the outer facade of a renewed system of chilling regime control.

– Carmen Gray