Jude Law, Paul Dano and Alicia Vikander topline a fine cast that does its best to inject depth into director Olivier Assayas' regrettably glib historical drama.

Set in Russia in the years following the fall of communism, The Wizard of the Kremlin doesn't always work dramatically. But you leave with a better understanding of how Vladimir Putin came to power.

I was slightly confounded by the latest from acclaimed filmmaker Olivier Assayas; its title subject is based on a real-life figure, a Russian “oligarch helper,” so to speak, named Vladislav Surkov—here called Vadim Baranov—as the credited source material for the film is an Italian novel by Giuliano di Empoli.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing fresh scrutiny after reports claimed he banned aides from wearing wristwatches during private Kremlin meetings over fears they could be used in a James Bond-style assassination attempt.

Paul Dano plays an influential aide to Jude Law’s Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’s drama that stretches credulity.

As the country heads into Victory Day, the economy is stalling, internet restrictions are growing and the Kremlin is fearing Ukrainian attacks.

There are alternative truths.” Bearing these caveats in mind, we look at what’s fact and what’s fiction in The Wizard of the Kremlin. After the collapse of Communism in 1989, young Vadim enrolls in drama school just as a wave of innovative theater,

Ilya Remeslo was put in a psychiatric hospital after criticizing Vladimir Putin. Now free, he said that he will not stop his crusade against the Russian president.

By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW, May 12 (Reuters) - The Kremlin has released a video of Vladimir Putin driving in Moscow and meeting an old school teacher in a hotel lobby, after Western media outlets cited a European intelligence report as saying the Russian president spent weeks holed up in bunkers.