This is the story of a tango as old as time: the alliance of the saber and the brush. Putin, the self-proclaimed Tsar of a nationalist Russia, and Kirill, the patriarch of a growing Russian Orthodox Church, are working together to develop their respective powers.

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The Russian church is back: helped by Putin who saw in it the useful cement of a Russia without a project after the fall of the Soviet model, it is trying to assert itself on social issues in its country and wants to play a parallel diplomatic role, to regain the place it had during the time of the tsars. Exceptionally, Kirill, the Patriarch of Moscow, allowed himself to be filmed for a year, and takes us to meet Russian political leaders, whom he invites to his Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas whom he receives in Moscow, and especially from Vladimir Putin, with whom he appears at will. Their project? Restore Holy Russia, propose a reactionary alternative to Western power, which both denounce to the point of caricature.

Title: “God Save Russia”
Director: Alice Cohen
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