Admiral

Admiral (Admiral, 2008) is a Russian war drama you can watch online on iFILM. Konstantin Khabensky plays Alexander Kolchak, a naval officer and polar explorer whose life cracks apart along with his country. Elizaveta Boyarskaya is Anna Timiryova, the wife of his closest friend and the woman he cannot turn away from.

The story spans four years from 1916: first the mine campaigns across the Baltic and the Black Sea, then the tsar's abdication, an army coming undone, and a front split in two. Kolchak joins the White movement and takes command over vast stretches of Siberia, while Anna stays at his side against propriety and against danger. Their affair runs counter to everything around it, to his oath, his duty to his family, and an era where feeling the wrong thing could cost a life.

The cast is large, with Sergey Bezrukov, Anna Kovalchuk, Egor Beroev and Fyodor Bondarchuk filling out the world. Director Andrey Kravchuk spares nothing on battle scenes and period detail, yet keeps the camera fixed on two people inside the wreck. The love story looms larger than the war here, which is both its pull and its weak spot for viewers who want the history kept exact. Stream Admiral (2008) online on iFILM.