Ivan the Terrible returns to the silver screen: Pavel Lungin's film Tsar

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn composing the plot of his film Tsar director Pavel Lungin had free rein to use primary sources and secondary works about the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533–84) and Metropolitan (head of the Russian Orthodox Church) Filipp who was murdered at his command and later canonized, as he preferred. Lungin's selective use of sources and eclectic invocation of previous and current historical scholarship in Russia adheres consistently to one abiding principle. Lungin always chose whatever ‘facts’ and interpretations present Ivan in the worst light possible as an insane (if in his own mind, religious) despot whose reign was catastrophic for Russia. Lungin's film sheds light on Ivan's image in contemporary Russia.