oleg ivenko is the star, and i gather ralph fiennes scoured the former soviet union looking for someone him. he needed someone who could dance, because if you got a body double, it would double the the time of the film and the budget of the film. so he needed someone who could dance. as you can see from the clip, i think he is very charismatic on camera. he is a good actor and gives you the sense of on the one hand everything that is attractive about nureyev‘s character, and also everything that is dangerous about it. what the film is about east and west, control and rebellion. at the centre of it is ballet, something of course is something which requires really strict discipline, something the russians are strong on. but he is a rebellious spirit, and he is told at one point, you are not technically very good, in some ways you are quite clumsy, but your spirit is perfect, and that is really what the film is about. i mean, hats off to ralph fiennes for not only getting his head around the complexities of ballet, but russian... the characters when they are in russia speak russian. they d

and oleg ivenko is the star, and i gather ralph fiennes scoured the former soviet union looking for somebody to play nureyev. he needed somebody who could dance, because he said if you were going to get a body double in, it would double the time of the film and the budget of the film. so they needed someone who could dance. as you can see from the clip, i think he is very charismatic on camera. he is a good actor and gives you that sense of, on the one hand everything that's attractive about nureyev‘s character, but also everything that is dangerous about it. because what the film is really about is east and west, control and rebellion. so at the centre of it is ballet which of course is something which requires really strict discipline, something the russians are very strong on. but he is a rebellious spirit, he's told at one point, you're not technically very good, actually, in some ways you are quite clumsy, but your spirit is perfect, and that's really what the film is about. i mean, hats off to fiennes for not only getting his head around the complexities of ballet, but also russian...