In the chaos of post-Soviet Russia, rising KGB officer Vladimir Putin joins forces with master manipulator Vadim Baranov to reshape life behind the Iron Curtain, using violence and deception to change the world forever.
"Power was the plan. Putin was the consequence."
Top Billed Cast
Paul Dano
Vadim Baranov
Jude Law
Vladimir Putin
Alicia Vikander
Ksenia
Tom Sturridge
Dmitri Sidorov
Will Keen
Boris Berezovsky
Jeffrey Wright
Rowland
Andrei Zayats
Igor Sechine
Kaspars Kambala
Alexander Zaldostanov
Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews
C CinemaSerfVerified TMDB Critic
2026-04-23
I suppose to be fair to Paul Dano, he does have something of the look of an apparatchik to him, but otherwise he really fails to deliver anything of the complexities or menace in this depiction of the rise of Vladimir Putin. OK, so Jude Law doesn't exactly convince in that latter role, either, but at least he does resemble his man! "Vadim" (Dano) is an aspiring film-maker of no great skill who ends up working as a television producer just as Boris Yeltsin is beginning to lose his grip. His benefactor, billionaire Boris Berezovsky (Will Keen) convinces him that the next man for the job of Presi...
B Brent MarchantVerified TMDB Critic
2026-05-12
Political leaders often don’t rise to that level of power without the strategic scripting concocted for them by the little-known kingmakers behind them. And that’s what this fact-based, though satirically fictional, political thriller about the rise of Russian president Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) seeks to chronicle. The film tells the story of professional political fixer Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano), who rises from art school student to television producer to “the Czar’s” righthand man, doing whatever it takes to promote and ensure the power of his boss after the resignation of Presiden...
