“The Regime” sets a lot of fires. It’s a deeply dark, cynical piece of satirical drama that evokes real-life atrocities for jokes, terror and pathos — oftentimes all at once. And while the flames may be compelling to stare at, they don’t attain a revelatory meaning until the kindling is examined closer.
Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) is the authoritarian leader of a fictional Central European nation. She’s fashionable but fearsome, sweet-talking but cruel-acting. And she has a new obsession: Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a soldier-turned-pariah who recently played a key role in the death of some protestors. Despite the grievances of her cabinet — a bit of a pattern for the Chancellor — Vernham brings Zubak aboard as a kind of enforcer-valet.
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