Nikita Mikhalkov's controversial epic Burnt by the Sun 2 has become a political football after Duma deputy Nikolai Ryabov demanded to know how the blockbuster's budget was spent.

The film, which cost a record-breaking $55 million to shoot over several years, has flopped at the box office, and the Communist deputy fears that state funding was used to pay for some of its costs.

Describing the film as "a total negation of the heroism of the Stalinist people", he demanded Mikhalkov refund any public money used to shoot the movie.

But the director, currently at the Cannes Film Festival, sniffily dismissed his critics, telling Life News that politicians "understand nothing" about filmmaking.