Emperor is certainly the most effective film of this program. Also included were Kravčuk’s spectacle Admiral, the controversial reinterpretation of the historic role of the “white” admiral Kolčak, and the excellent “female” war drama One War by Vera Glagoljeva

The program of contemporary Russian films was shown in Split and Rijeka after it finished in Tuškanac with the screening of Pavel Lungin's film Emperor. Ambitiously organized, with attractive guests such as the directors Andrej Kravčuk and Vera Storoževa and the prestigious actor Sergej Puskepalis, the program is planned to become an annual event, much like the Days of Czech, Italian and Swedish films. This is exciting because the products of one of the world’s most powerful film industries are rarely shown in either domestic film theatres or on television.

Emperor is certainly the most effective film in this program. Also included were Kravčuk’s spectacle Admiral, (the controversial reinterpretation of the historic role of the “white” admiral Kolčak), as well as the excellent “female” war drama One War by Vera Glagoljeva, which attracted significant interest at international festivals. Emperor is a costumed political essay with a budget of at least ten million euros and had its world premiere at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Even though it did not win any awards, film connoisseurs around the world soon embraced it as an exquisite piece of film. It is visually fascinating (Lungin managed to hire Tom Stern, director of photography for many Clint Eastwood’s films), but most impressive is the intriguing relationship between the two heroes – emperor Ivan The Terrible (Pjotr Mamonov) and metropolitan bishop Filip (great Russian actor Oleg Jankovski who died after the Cannes premiere). The state and the church struggle for power, and similarities to the era of Stalinism are more than obvious. At the time, Sergej Eisenstein was shooting his never completed trilogy about the Russian dictator as a metaphor of the time he lived in, while Lungin could afford to be very direct in his approach: the Emperor’s soldiers are of course the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs). In addition, there are some subtle messages that concern Putin’s autocracy.

Emperor will probably never achieve such a high place in film history such as Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible. Nevertheless, it is an absolutely impressive film. (Nenad Polimac)