Exodus: Burnt by the Sun 2: Film Review

CANNES -- Nikita Mikhalkov's Exodus: Burnt by the Sun 2 arrived in Cannes carrying excess baggage. The first Burnt by the Sun, a portrayal of the Stalinist-era Soviet Union, won the festival's grand prize in 1994 along with an Oscar for best foreign-language film, thus raising expectations. Then this sequel, reportedly the most expensive movie in Russian history, ran into boxoffice troubles at home. The film may eventually gross around 15 million euros, something of a disappointment, but more troubling is that Russian critics castigated the film for sticking too closely to the Kremlin's approved version of World War II and for its promotion of orthodox Christianity.