Rasputin

Rasputin (1996) is an HBO historical film you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Uli Edel. Rather than leaning into supernatural mythology, it traces the political mechanism: how a barely educated Siberian peasant who claimed healing powers became the most contested presence at the Romanov court in the dynasty's final decade.

Alan Rickman plays Grigoriy Rasputin as a man who seems to have believed his own mythology — which makes the performance stranger and more troubling than a straight villain portrait would be. Greta Scacchi plays Empress Alexandra, Ian McKellen takes a key conspirator role, and David Warner is Nicholas II. Shot in Hungary with a serious eye for period detail, the film doesn't sensationalize the material.

Rickman took home a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries for this — one of the sharper awards decisions of that decade. Stream Rasputin (1996) online on iFILM.