Aleksandr Sokurov	...	(Réalisateur)
Boris Khaimsky, Anatoli Nikiforov	...	(Scénariste)
Sergei Dontsov	...	The Stranger (The Marquis de Custine) (as Sergei Dreiden)
Mariya Kuznetsova	...	Catherine The Great
Leonid Mozgovoy	...	The Spy
Mikhail Piotrovsky	...	Himself (Hermitage Director)
David Giorgobiani	...	Orbeli
Aleksandr Chaban	...	Boris Piotrovsky
Lev Yeliseyev	...	Himself
Oleg Khmelnitsky	...	Himself
Alla Osipenko	...	Herself
Artyom Strelnikov	...	Talented Boy
Tamara Kurenkova	...	Herself (Blind Woman)
Maksim Sergeyev	...	Peter the Great
Natalya Nikulenko	...	Catherine the Great
Yelena Rufanova	...	First Lady
Yelena Spiridonova	...	Second Lady

Commentaires: 2000 cast members, 3 orchestras, 33 rooms, 300 years, ALL IN ONE TAKE

Résumé: Told in one fluid shot, a tale which floats like a dreamlike journey through the majestic spaces of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, engaging real and imagined characters from Russian and European history. The nameless protagonist, a 19th-century French diplomat, guides the audience through a lost, sumptuous dream that was the Enlightenment period. The film, staged among some of the Western Art tradition's greatest masterpieces, climaxes in a pageant of color, motion, and music. For Sokurov, the Hermitage--home to generations of Romonovs and repository of so much Russian history--is the ark of the Russian soul, guarding it affectionately until the world sees better days.