Russian Circuit
Posted: December 8, 2009
Tsar (Царь)
Director(s):  Pavel Lungin (Best Director recipient - Nikita; nominee - César awards)
Writer(s): Aleksei Ivanov
Producer(s): Â Pavel Lungin, Olga Vasileva
Star(s):
- Pyotr Mamonov (Best Actor - Nikita award)
- Oleg Yankovskiy (2-time Best Actor - Nikita award)
Tri-genre: Â period suspense drama
Story Situation: Â house divided
Satisfaction Rating: Â above average
Maturity Rating: 13+
Plotline:  Russia, 1565. In the desperate shadow of the Livonian War against Scandinavia and Poland, Tsar Ivan the Terrible (Pyotr Mamonov) imagines treachery everywhere as he attempts to prepare Russia for Christianity’s Judgment Day. His guardsmen ruthlessly destroy anyone who might get in his way, thereby imposing Tsar Ivan’s iron will through terror and filling the country with the blood and starvation of innocents. Only Metropolitan Bishop Philip (the late Oleg Yankovskiy) of the Solovestsky Islands, once a trusted and loyal childhood friend of the Tsar himself, dares to speak out against the monarch’s misguided dictates. A King Henry-Archbishop Thomas Becket-style showdown quickly ensues.
Comment: This final screen performance by actor Oleg Yankovskiy metaphorically presages the paranoid Soviet reign of Joseph Stalin where moral justice was sacrificed for delusional altruistic goals. Upon Yankovskiy’s death from pancreatic cancer, Russian President Vladimir Putin eulogized him as an actor’s actor “sent by God.”
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