'I have confidence': Jude Law, who plays Vladimir Putin on screen, says he doesn't fear repercussions

A high-pressure role. In "The Mage of the Kremlin," which is scheduled to hit theaters in January 2026, Jude Law plays Vladimir Putin. Olivier Assayas's adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli's best-selling novel has been selected for the official selection of the Venice Film Festival , which opened on August 27.

Speaking to the press on Sunday, the 52-year-old British actor said he was not worried about any possible repercussions for his portrayal of the Russian leader still in power: "I have confidence in Olivier's perspective and in the script, which treats the story intelligently, with nuance and consideration."

He continued: "We weren't looking for controversy for the sake of controversy. He's a character who is part of a much larger story."

The story focuses on Vadim Baranov, a Russian communications consultant with formidable intelligence, played by Paul Dano. A character inspired by Vladislav Surkov, co-founder of the party that led Vladimir Putin to the presidency of Russia in 2001.

"I think you have to be willing to discover the character's point of view," Paul Dano explained to the press. "To call a character like Baranov evil would be an oversimplification, which would do more harm than good."

For Jude Law, one of the film's main challenges was conveying the inscrutability of the Russian leader, nicknamed "the man without a face," while also meeting the dramatic demands of the narrative. "He wears a mask," he explains. "Of course, Olivier wanted me to portray this or that in a scene with a certain emotion, and I felt the conflict of trying to show very little."

"The Kremlin Mage," presented three years after the start of the war in Ukraine , aims to question the current power, recalls The Guardian . "The film is very interested in the invention of modern politics, that of the 21st century, and in some of the evil born of the rise to power of Vladimir Putin in Russia," emphasizes director Olivier Assayas.