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Russian manager Andrey Zvyagintsev (May 19, 2026) sent daze waves done the Cannes Film Festival with a soberly damning transgression movie astir execution and corruption successful Russia, acceptable against the conscription of young men into President Vladimir Putin's warfare with Ukraine.
Minotaur, which debuted Tuesday nighttime astatine the French festival, was 1 of the astir anticipated selections astatine this year's Cannes. The movie rewarded those expectations, receiving 1 of the festival's astir enthusiastic responses and putting the Russian filmmaker squarely successful the premix for the Palme d'Or.
While Minotaur is outwardly centered astir a joined couple, its communicative has evident governmental reverberations.
Dmitriy Mazurov plays the main enforcement of a ample shipping institution who, arsenic Russia's subject mobilizes for the all-out penetration of Ukraine successful February 2022, is asked to lend a quota of 150 workers to the mounting warfare effort.
At the aforesaid time, Mazurov begins investigating the suspected infidelity of his wife, played by Iris Lebedeva. As Minotaur evolves, their household play takes connected darker symbolism for the deceptions and savagery of Putin's war.
“It was important for maine to marque this movie fixed the existent Russian context,” Zvyagintsev told reporters connected Wednesday. “It was a cleanable pretext to accidental immoderate important things.” For Zvyagintsev, it was a long-in-coming triumph. His erstwhile 2 films -- Leviathan (2014) and Loveless (2017) -- were some critically acclaimed Oscar nominees. But during the pandemic, unwellness forced Zvyagintsev into an induced coma for 40 days.
Recovering successful a German clinic, helium had to relearn however to locomotion and clasp utensils. A twelvemonth later, successful 2022 and inactive successful a wheelchair, helium moved his household to Paris.
“It's 1 of the top things that's happened to maine implicit these past 9 years,” Zvyagintsev said of returning to Cannes, wherever his erstwhile 2 films debuted. “Coming backmost aft specified a lengthy lack to the Cannes Film Festival is an perfectly incomparable event.”
Zvyagintsev had antecedently worked successful Russia, and portion his films resisted overt governmental statement, their critiques of Putin's authorities weren't hard to infer. Russia's Cultural Ministry, which had partially funded Leviathan was highly captious of the movie, saying it “openly spit on” the government.
Minotaur is the archetypal movie made by Zvyagintsev extracurricular Russia. He changeable it successful Latvia.
“I possibly mislaid a nexus erstwhile I near Russia six years ago, but I cognize what I'm talking about,” helium said. “I cognize however the radical think, however they react, however they spell astir things. I cognize a batch astir corruption, too, which has developed successful the country.”
While Zvyagintsev didn't marque galore nonstop statements astir Russia connected Wednesday, helium explained however helium sees authorities filtering into his filmmaking.
“I didn't privation to marque the astir of the authorities due to the fact that that would discredit what you hear,” the manager said. “It was amended to indulge successful soundlessness and trust connected gestures.”
The wide outlines of Minotaur were inspired by Claude Chabrol's 1969 movie The Unfaithful Wife.
Zvyagintsev archetypal began moving connected it years ago. But aft the full-scale penetration of Ukraine transpired during his recovery, the movie began to shift. As successful his erstwhile movies, geopolitics seeped into a household drama.
“There's thing much absorbing than studying a couple,” helium said. “Each subordinate of a mates person to marque choice, choices which telephone the narration successful the household into question. A household is similar a battlefield.”
