In 16th-century Russia in the grip of chaos, Ivan the Terrible strongly believes he is vested with a holy mission. Believing he can understand and interpret the signs, he sees the Last Judgment approaching. He establishes absolute power, cruelly destroying anyone who gets in his way. During this reign of terror, Philip, the superior of the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands, a great scholar and Ivan's close friend, dares to oppose the sovereign's mystical tyranny. What follows is a clash between two completely opposite visions of the world, smashing morality and justice, God and men. A grand-scale film with excellent leading roles by Mamonov and Yankovsky. An allegory of Stalinist Russia
Acting
Mamonov's Ivan: terrifying, pathetic, somehow both.
Production
Candle-lit monasteries that smell of wax and doom.
Direction
Lungin frames power like a fever dream you can't wake from.
Director
Pavel Lungin
Pyotr Mamonov
Иван Грозный
Oleg Yankovskiy
метрополит Филипп
Alexandr Domogarov
Алексей Басманов
Ivan Okhlobystin
Вассиан, царский шут
Yuriy Kuznetsov
Малюта Скуратов
Aleksey Makarov
воевода Колычев
Aleksandr Ilyin Jr
Федька Басманов
Ville Haapasalo
Генрих Штаден
Aleksey Frandetti
Кай-Булат
Ramilya Iskander
Мария Темрюковна
Anvar Khalilulaev
метрополит Филипп в детстве
Oleg Surnov
нищий
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pyotr Mamonov was a rock star before becoming the definitive Ivan; he died a monk in 2021, completing his own strange spiritual arc.
Lungin explicitly designed this as Stalinist allegory—the Oprichniki as NKVD, the show trials as confession-by-torture.
RU
