A young activist (denouncing meat eating, political prisoners, etc.) meets by chance and falls in love with Russia´s top producer of computer games and virtual reality, Evgeny Voigin (played by K. Khabensky). Amid plenty of naïve smiles she reveals to him that they are Andrey Rublev and Danil Cherny reincarnated.
This revelation, together with the young activist's love, seem to leave cynical Evgeny rather indifferent. Nor is it clear where his genius for computer games lies, other than by his credo that any publicity, even bad publicity, is good for his company.
Throw into this mix a few other odd elements, such as Evgeny´s daughter who stubbornly refuses to speak throughout the whole film and a band of neo-Nazi youngsters who go around the streets murdering anybody they fancy (particularly migrants), and you end up with an incoherent story that just does not work. Its purpose is hard to fathom.
Some of the scenes are decent, well filmed, good music, well acted. But the whole just does not work. Even a fabulous actor like Khabensky (and there are other very good actors in this film, such as Ingeborga Dapkunaite) cannot save a flawed story.
Maybe it is not worth touching Rublev unless you have something meaningful to add.
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