The Wizard of the Kremlin - Movie Review in Tamil - Lets Talk Cinema I GabrielDevadoss I Kevin Paul

Gabriel Devadoss and Kevin Paul discuss Olivier Assayas’s The Wizard of the Kremlin, a political drama that takes us through the collapse of the Soviet Union, the chaotic birth of post-Soviet Russia, and the extraordinary rise of Vladimir Putin from a former KGB officer to one of the most powerful political figures of the twenty-first century.

As Boris Yeltsin struggles to hold together a country devastated by economic upheaval, a new class of oligarchs emerges, acquiring enormous fortunes and unprecedented political influence. Men like Boris Berezovsky discover the power of television in shaping public opinion, influencing elections and manufacturing political identities, while the Kremlin strategist Vadim Baranov finds himself at the centre of a political system in which businessmen, intelligence officers and media manipulators compete to determine Russia's future.

From the Chechen wars and the Russian apartment bombings to the destruction of oligarchic power, the Kursk submarine disaster and the consolidation of state authority, we explore how Putin transformed the Russian political system and gradually brought television, business and political opposition under Kremlin influence. The discussion also looks at Russia's complicated relationship with the West, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the emergence of political movements designed to counter Western influence.

Through the story of Vadim Baranov, The Wizard of the Kremlin raises larger questions about political power, the manufacture of public opinion, the relationship between the state and its wealthy elites, and how a country emerging from the ruins of communism came to be dominated by a new ruler often described as the New Tsar.