Official submission of Russia for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 72th Academy Awards in 2000.
Directed by Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov, the film is the first in Sokurov's tetralogy of power. It was succeeded by Taurus (2001), about Vladimir Lenin, The Sun (2005), involving Japanese emperor Hirohito, and Faust (2011), based on the old German legend Faust. For production, Aleksandr Sokurov employed Russian actors from Saint Petersburg to shoot the film, but their voices were later dubbed by German theater actors from Berlin.