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The Man Behind the New Iron Curtain: A TIFF Review of ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’
September 24, 2025Ben MK
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As a world leader, Vladimir Putin has been contentious, to say the least. Yet, when you step back and examine how Russia's current president came into power, the story is far more intricate and surprising than you might imagine. Appointed Acting President on New Year's Eve, 1999, to replace an ailing Boris Yeltsin, Putin was a figurehead for everything Russia in the '90s was trying to move away from. So just how did such a man not only get elected as the President of one of the two most powerful nuclear nations on the planet, but also re-elected for two more terms? That's the burning question director Olivier Assayas sets out to answer with The Wizard of the Kremlin, in this decades-spanning story about how one man became the unlikely architect of the Russia of the new millennium. Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano) isn't your typical political advisor. But as he recounts to an American journalist (Jeffrey Wright) who has come to interview him at his snow-covered home in the Russian countryside, he never intended on the career path that he's proven so good at. A young man with a completely non-traumatic upbringing, Vadim came of age in the "Wild Nineties," a time in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when capitalism replaced communism as the country's ruling form of government. But when this aspiring-actor-turned-television-producer is recruited by oligarch Boris Berezovsky (Will Keen) to help with Boris Yeltsin's re-election campaign — and to subsequently handpick his successor — it marks the beginning of a journey that will not only transform Vadim as a person, but Russia as a nation. Choosing Putin (Jude Law), a former KGB intelligence officer and the head of Russia's counterintelligence agency, the FSB, for the top job, Vadim has no idea just how much Putin will have an effect on Russia for the years, if not decades, to come. But just like a mad scientist who's able to bestow life upon his own monstrous creation, does Vadim truly know how to keep his experiment from running amok? Or will his creation eventually turn on him, ultimately leading to his untimely demise? Based on the 2022 novel by Giuliano da Empoli, the result is part truth, part fiction. Yet, despite the dramatic embellishments that have been made, The Wizard of the Kremlin still doesn't make for a very compelling film, due to its meandering narrative and sluggish pacing. That said, Dano and Law are both excellent, bringing believability, gravitas, and the occasional moment of levity to their portrayals. However, if you're expecting an intriguing political thriller, Assayas' latest doesn't have very many tricks up its sleeve. |
The Wizard of the Kremlin screens under the Special Presentations programme at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Its runtime is 2 hrs. 36 min.
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