It portrays the memories of Matilda Kshesinskaya and her love affair with the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Matilda, a Polish-born ballerina from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, had a brief and intense romance with Nicholas between 1892 and 1894, before Nicholas married Alexandra Feodorovna and was crowned Tsar after his father's death. It also explores their relationship, facing societal pressures and interference from Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as Matilda's involvement with other members of the imperial family, the Romanovs, such as Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.
Costume
Every frame drips Romanov jewels and tutu tulle worth a revolution.
Cinematography
St. Petersburg never looked this gorgeously doomed.
Director
Alexei Uchitel
Michalina Olszańska
Matilda Kschessinska
Lars Eidinger
Nicolas II
Luise Wolfram
Alexandra Feodorovna
Danila Kozlovsky
Vorontsov
Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)
Sergey Garmash
Alexandre III
Evgeny Mironov
Ivan Karlovich
Grigoriy Dobrygin
Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia
Galina Tyunina
Maria Pavlovna, wife of prince Vladimir
Vitaliy Kovalenko
Vladimir Aleksandrovich, great Duke
Vitaly Kishchenko
Vlasov, head of detective police
Thomas Ostermeier
Fishel, psychiatrist
Sarah Stern
Pierina Legnani
Irina Lerman
Yang Ge
Kawakami, massage therapist
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film sparked real controversy in Russia, with Orthodox activists demanding bans and even torching theaters—apparently some wounds from 1917 still sting.
Michalina Olszańska trained for months at the Vaganova Academy to perform her own dance sequences—not that the haters cared.
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