Viking

Said to be the third most expensive Russian film ever produced, Andrei Kravchuk’s Viking is a sweeping historical epic centering on the rise of Grand Duke Vladimir the Great (Danila Kozlovsky), a formerly exiled prince who waged war against his brother to claim his father’s seat and conquer 10^th Century Kievan Rus, eventually converting the territory to Christianity after centuries of Pagan rule.

Shot on location in Crimea, Kravchuk crafts a suitably grand series of battles and sieges that takes the audience down to wallow in the blood-soaked mud as hulking warriors tear each other limb from limb. Kravchuk injects these battles with imaginative details and quirks, never repeating himself over the two and a half hour run time.

Yet while the battles and the cinematography are visually spectacular, it is often hard to care about who lives or dies for the very simple fact that many of the characters are terrible people. The issue starts with our hero, Vladimir, who in one of his first on screen acts, rapes his future wife. No matter how heroic Kravchuk tries to portray him later in the film, this remains an issue. This is a problem for many historical narratives where the moral standards of the society they represent are so separated from ours and credit must go to Kravchuk for not shying away from the historically accurate behavior of his characters.

The women do not fare much better with Aleksandra Bortich as Vladimir’s first wife, Rogneda, and Svetlana Khodchenkova as the widow of Vladimir’s brother, Irina. Both women represent the warring religions in Vladimir’s life as the prince is pulled away from his father’s pagan’s belief and towards Christianity, a potentially fascinating aspect of Vladimir’s life yet one that is seemingly glossed over with neither woman fully receiving the focus they deserve.

A visceral and beautifully shot epic, Viking nonetheless struggles to reconcile the actions of Vladimir with his important legacy in the history of the Russian people.

Viking
Russian Resurrection Film Festival 2017
Till Sunday, 19 November 2017
View Trailer