Sophia

The Russian TV miniseries Sofiya (2016) was shown in the U.S. with the anglicised title Sophia. The series was directed by Vyacheslav Ross and Aleksey Andrianov. Mariya Andreeva is superb in the title role of Sophia Palaiologina, who was a Byzantine princess.

By the time the movie begins--in the late 15th century--Constantinople had been conquered by the Turks. Sophia and her family had escaped to Rome, where they were treated well by the Pope and a cardinal.

Her marriage was arranged with Ivan III, Prince of Muscovy. It was thought that her influence would be enough to lead Russia, which was Eastern Orthodox, back to Roman Catholicism. We learn immediately that four years in Rome had not permanently changed Sophia's belief in Eastern Orthodoxy. Once she crossed into Russia, she returned to her original faith.

One plot of the movie is agents of the Pope trying to kill Sophia. Another is the castle intrigues, heresies, and political infighting. (We call such matters Byzantine for a reason, but they were not restricted to the Byzantine Empire.)

We heard a lecture about the historical Sophia, and as far as I can tell, the plot of the miniseries is historically accurate in the overall sense. Whether the dialog actually played out in real life the way it did on the screen is beyond my knowledge.

Incidentally, the lecturer called the movie a soap opera. Well, yes and no. Most miniseries could be called soap operas if you think of them that way. Episode one--crisis, then resolution, then a teaser. Episode two--crisis, then resolution, then a teaser. Downton Abbey was a soap opera too, if that's how you define soap opera.

My thought is that this is a miniseries about a fascinating episode in Russian history, well acted and well directed. Other raters agreed with me, because Sophia has a very high IMDb rating of 7.8. I thought it was even better than that, and rated it 9.

I love this series. The scenery is beautiful and the acting is great. It is a very good portrayal of a part of Russian history that I knew nothing about. But the title is Sofia. And she is at best a supporting character. The series focuses much more on the Male characters.

This series is really great and I really enjoyed it but it is much more about ivan iii and his mother with a little bit thrown in about Sofia

SOPHIA (2016) was an exceptional Russian historical mini series drama, focusing on the lives of the historical figures of Grand Princess Sophia Palaiologina (played by Mariya Andreeva) and her husband the Grand Prince / Csar Ivan III (played by Evgeniy Tsyganov).

"In 15th Century Russia, the last Byzantine princess, Sophia Palaiologina, moves from Rome to far away Moscow to marry Czar Ivan III. Destined to become the first influential female figure of the Russian Empire, Sophia overcomes court intrigue and betrayals, and helps Ivan consolidate the fragmented country, push Mongolian invaders out, and build the Kremlin, the most magnificent symbol of Russia."

This series was excellent, captivating and visually appealing. The costumes and settings for one were incredible and made the show quite immersive. The cast, especially Princess Sophia (Mariya Andreeva), Czar Ivan III (Evgeniy Tsyganov), Grand Princess Maria Yaroslavna (Nadezhda Markina), and a quite few many others are all excellent and the story was quite intriguing though filled with relevant politics that may be dull to some. Liking historical politics and intrigue, I rather enjoyed it, myself.

On a side note, Evgeniy Tsyganov, who was really great in this role as Prince Ivan III, was also known to me by his previous role in the Russian historical WWII war movie, based on true events about the life of the extraordinary female sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko; the movie was called Battle of Sevastopol, a great movie for anyone interested.

Moving on and without spoilers, I will just say I wasn't really satisfied with the last few episodes. It was an alright ending, but not really as powerful as the rest of the series had been. Things just didn't feel very organic or natural but overly dramatized compared to the rest of the series. The other issue for me was an unusual shift that happened somewhere around the mid-point of the series, in which the focus drifted from Sophia being the central character POV to others, namely Ivan but others as well, being the central focus and her feeling more and more like a side character. This weakened the story a bit for me, as it felt that the series treated her as less valuable past a certain point, naturally after having children. *eyeroll*

Other than that, the series was a very nice hidden gem free on Amazon Prime Video. The costumes, settings, and production value, as well as much of the acting, were visually stunning and the story was intriguing. Wish the writing hadn't faltered towards the end. But overall, happy to have watched it. Great period drama focusing on the Russian historical era of Czar Ivan III. I would love to see move Russian series, in this era or others. A great find!

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this "historical" account of Sophia. It was interesting and beautifully filmed. However, after a while it got bogged down with the Politics vs Religion wars. I also found it telling that the writers put in contemporary slang for something set in the year 1472. For instance, one of the palaces servants says, "I'll bring snacks in a jiffy." No joke, I immediately wrote it down. Then the Prince later says, "when pigs might fly." I guess they wanted to make sure we were still paying attention. I did. Was it purposely done that the Fydor looked like a dead ringer for Lenin? The only reason why I lowered the score is because of the above, but mainly the ongoing and boring wars between the two factions. Yawn.