Tobol

One of the most awful films I have seen in the last years. All actors' play is unsatisfactory, almost nothing left from the original book which is interesting and very good, so no surprise the author asked to take off his name from the film titles.

Probably 1 star too many, but I have seen recently so many bad films that this one seems quite good. Consider the fact that I am a Pole, so I dislike Russian culture, but the film seems really interesting. Set in the times of Peter the Great, the builder and conquerer. A story is simple, war and love, but played well, heroes believable, actors are professionals, a few beautiful and handsome faces, the set is drawn in simple strokes, you can follow enjoying the view, harsh climate and characters. Costumes are beautiful, the screenplay acceptable, directing flawless, cinematographer knows his job. A solid film deserving a better recognition. Not too much money spent and thank God, instead of following blown cars or cities we can follow a good storyline.

Siberian families fight to preserve Russia.

Action film has good acting (Agata Mutsenietse as 'Brigitte') and big production values complete with a Topol-type character ('Fiddler on the Roof', 1971) and a Genghis Khan-type warrior. Who will prevail?

English subtitles help make this near 2-hour film watchable.

Not least for the glimpse it might give into some of Putin's thinking.

I have no idea about the historical accuracy, but the geopolitics is very interesting, showing the juxtaposition of the same sort of eastern mounted warriors who in more ancient times had often swept into Europe, but were now caught between the Chinese and Russian empires.

The predominant theme is one of peoples just wanting to live in peace - one that is extremely relevant today - and just how difficult that can be, with troublemakers at both extremes of the social hierarchy always ready to start a fight.

Despite appearances, the plot line is quite complex - even at the romantic level - and the action scenes are well staged.

It's nice to watch films from sources other than the Hollywood production line, especially when they give you a glimpse into other cultures and ways of life.

First, i dont know the book or anything about russian history, but im not an author, nor a historian and im here to rate a movie, not the accuracy of it.

And the movie is absolute ok. The scenery is good, the actors are decent, the dialogues are ok, i think in russian they are actually a bit better due to the difficulties of translating russian into german or english. At least they put a lot of effort in the locations and outfits (nothing looks fake or cheaply put together), im not sure if theyre accurate, but as i told, im not here to rate accuracy, so for me the locations are made good, the costumes look good and everything seems to fit for that day and age. The CGI is good enough for that kind of movie. The action and fighting scenes were good too.

I think this movie really is worth watching. Ive seen far worse russian movies. So this movie gets a solid 8 of 10 for the decent effort they put in it.