Jude Law’s Putin in ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ Could Become Awards Season’s Wild Card

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Sep 1

Written By Jonathan P. Moustakas

Paul Dano in *The Wizard of the Kremlin* - **Courtsey of The Venice International Film Festival**

Olivier Assayas’ Venice-premiering political drama casts Jude Law in a chilling turn as Vladimir Putin, sparking awards chatter alongside Paul Dano’s haunted performance.

Venice Film Festival audiences were given one of the season’s most provocative debuts with The Wizard of the Kremlin, Olivier Assayas’ adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s bestselling novel. The film pairs Paul Dano as Vadim Baranov, a fictional artist who becomes a shadowy consigliere inside the Kremlin, with Jude Law in a startlingly restrained yet uncanny portrait of Vladimir Putin.

The project has already drawn comparisons to The Apprentice — Ali Abbasi’s Cannes competition title earlier this year that reimagined Donald Trump’s rise and earned Oscar nominations for Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. Deadline notes that the echoes are impossible to ignore, and for Law, the role came with obvious questions about stepping into such charged terrain. “I didn’t fear repercussions,” Law said during the Venice press conference, as reported by Deadline. “I felt confident in Olivier’s hands, and we weren’t looking for controversy for its own sake.”

Assayas, speaking to reporters, stressed that the film isn’t merely about Putin but about the architecture of modern politics itself. “The rise of Vladimir Putin is part of a larger story,” he said, per Deadline. “We wanted to examine how 21st-century politics were invented — and how that invention has shaped a dangerous global reality.”

What’s most striking is how Law appears in the film. He doesn’t enter until nearly an hour into the story, but his presence is calibrated with eerie precision. “I wasn’t interested in impersonation,” Law explained. “It was about finding a familiarity, not prosthetics or mimicry, but capturing what he represents in this historical moment.” Assayas added that he needed “an actor who could internalize all the contradictions — power, intelligence, menace — without ever turning into caricature.”

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The early critical consensus is that Dano provides the moral compass, playing Baranov as a man seduced and corrupted by power while resisting one-dimensional villainy. During the festival’s Q&A, Dano described his approach: “Labeling someone as simply ‘bad’ is a dangerous oversimplification. Asking why, and living in the gray, is far more frightening.”

Both performances could enter the awards conversation, though Law, in a year with few high-profile supporting actor contenders, may hold a unique advantage. For Dano, who remains shockingly Oscar-less despite a career of standout work, The Wizard of the Kremlin may offer the showcase voters can’t ignore.

With its Venice premiere now complete, the film positions itself as one of the most politically charged titles of the fall festival season — a sharp meditation on power, loyalty, and the blurred line between governance and performance. If The Apprentice proved audiences and voters are willing to reward actors for tackling real-world figures with nuance, Assayas and Law may have timed their entry perfectly.