9 foreign actors who can be seen in Russian cinema (PHOTOS)
Stars from all over the world have been playing for Russian directors for many years. We’ve highlighted some of the most striking below.
1. Burak Ozcivit
The main crush of all fans of Turkish TV shows burst onto Russian screens in 2024 – as himself in the rom-com ‘I'll Be With You for a Long Time’. And then he appeared – again as himself – in the most popular New Year's domestic franchise ‘Yolki’ (‘Christmas trees’).
2. Milos Bikovic
His first role in a Russian movie was Nikita Mikhalkov's ‘Sunstroke’, based on the stories and diaries of Ivan Bunin. The famous Russian director noticed the Serbian actor at the Moscow Film Festival in 2011, where he presented the movie ‘Montevideo – Divine Vision’ about Yugoslavia's participation in the first World Cup. Since then, Bikovic's filmography has included several dozen Russian TV shows and full-length movies. Including ‘Kholop’ (‘Serf’, 2019) about a wealthy, young man who has been "relocated" to a 19th-century Russian village, ‘Lyod’ (‘Ice’, 2018) about figure skating, the retro-detective ‘Krasny Shchelk’ (‘Red Silk’, 2025) and roles in the TV shows ‘Magomayev’ (2019) and ‘Hotel Eleon’ (2016-2017).
3. August Diehl
His appearance in Russian cinema was perhaps the most high-profile of recent years. Perhaps, because the coincidence with the literary character played by Diehl was incredibly accurate. And the audience, following Bulgakov's characters Berlioz and Bezdomny, immediately understood: this was a foreigner before them. The same Woland from ‘The Master and Margarita’, who once appeared on Patriarch's Ponds at the hour of an unusually hot sunset.
4. Daniel Barnes
Daniel is originally from Indiana, United States. In 2012, after graduating from Butler University, on the advice of an acting teacher, he went to Russia. He thought it would be for a year and a half, but it turned out to be for a long time. He studied Russian in parallel with classes at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (‘GITIS’) in Moscow and soon began acting in commercials, TV shows and movies. He can be seen in the movie ‘Nuremberg’ (2023) and the TV show ‘Karamora’ (2022). Daniel also hosts a show for those learning English.
5. Petar Zekavica
He was born in Belgrade, studied in Hawaii, worked in New York and, in the early 2000s, decided to leave for Russia. In Moscow, Petar played at the Vladimir Mayakovsky Theater and the Taganka Theater, but is better known for his roles in movies and TV shows. For example, in ‘Union of Salvation’ (2019) about the Decembrist uprising, he plays Fyodor Schwartz, the commander of the Semenovsky regiment, and, in ‘The Tsar’s Vaccination’ (2024), he played Dr. Thomas Dimsdale, who vaccinated Catherine II and Tsarevich Paul against smallpox.
6. Marco Dinelli
It was not cinema that connected this Italian with Russia, but the Russian language. He studied it at the University of Perugia and, in the 1990s, he began to teach at Moscow University. Dinelli translated works by Yuri Mamleev, Sergei Dovlatov and other authors into Italian. His movie debut was a small role in ‘Viy 2. The Secret of the Dragon’s Seal’ (2019). And now his filmography includes roles in the TV shows ‘Hotel Eleon’, ‘Krasnaya Polyana’ 2024 and ‘Unprincipled’ (2020- ).
7. Junsuke Kinoshita
This Japanese actor and director first came to Moscow in 2010. His sister invited him to the Russian capital: he came and… fell in love with the city. And not knowing Russian was not an obstacle: Junsuke has been living there for 15 years. He dedicated his first documentary film, shot in Russia, to dancer Morihiro Iwata, the first foreign soloist of the Bolshoi Theater. His filmography includes the roles of Filipino chess player Florencio Campomanes in ‘Champion of the World’ (2021) by director Alexei Sidorov, UN employee Osiri in ‘Petropolis’ (2022) by Valery Fokin and a sports commentator in ‘Mister Knockout’ (2022).
8. Wolfgang Czerny
This Austrian actor's filmography includes ‘Mission: Impossible: Fallout’ (2015) and ‘The Last Warrior’ (2017) and ‘The Last Warrior: A Messenger of Darkness’ (2021), where he plays the character Alyosha Popovich. He has also played roles in the mystical TV show ‘Inye’ (‘The Others’, 2024) and movies ‘Legenda o Sambo’ (‘The Legend of Sambo’, 2023) and ‘Zoloto Umalty’ (‘The Gold of Umalta’, 2024) also filmed in Russia.
9. Lars Eidinger
In 2017, Eidinger played the role of Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich in the movie ‘Mathilde’ about the romance of future Tsar Nicholas II and ballerina Mathilde Kshesinskaya. Alexei Uchitel's movie caused a storm of discussion: some even demanded that it be banned, since they believed that the director took the interpretation of the relationship between the emperor and his favorite too freely.
