“The Mage of the Kremlin” “intrigued” and “annoyed” its first Russian viewers

“I haven't seen this film. This is the first time I've heard of it.” With this short statement, relayed by the pro-government Russian newspaper Argoumenti i Fakty , Vladimir Putin responded to the announcement that a feature film entitled The Mage of the Kremlin had been screened on August 31 at the Venice Film Festival, one of the most renowned film festivals in the world.

Directed by Frenchman Olivier Assayas ( Les ​​Destinées sentimentales, Carlos, Sils Maria …), The Mage of the Kremlin is adapted from the eponymous novel by Italian-Swiss writer Giuliano da Empoli, published in 2022 by Gallimard – a popular and critical success, winner of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, and whose rights have been sold in a good thirty countries. But if the Russian president feigns ignorance, it is perhaps because this fiction addresses too directly a period that he prefers to leave in the shadows: that of his rise to supreme power.

The screenplay for the feature film, which will be released in France on January 21, 2026, was co-written by Olivier Assayas and Emmanuel Carrère. It traces the trajectory of Vadim Baranov, a fictional character, a former television producer turned Kremlin strategist. He is a thinly veiled alter ego of Vladislav Surkov, a very real character, often described