He's not Vladimir Putin; he's something else that's much more interesting."Assayas previously worked with Vikander on the television series remake of his own movie, Irma Vep."The show's eight hours, so you would think I'd have done everything I could imaginably do with an actress," he says. "But Alicia is one of the greats of her generation "Not only has the world not changed, but it's been going in whatever horrible direction Giuliano was pointing at."With no safe access to Russia, Assayas and his regular cinematographer, Yorick Le Saux, were forced to film in Latvia. "Once upon a time, you could go to Kyiv, or shoot it in Belarus, but all that is gone."Given that political enemies of Putin are statistically likely to fall out of windows and planes, does Assayas worry that he might be in danger?"No, to be honest, I don't think he saw the film," Assayas says with a wry chuckle. "I don't think he will ever see it