Director Kirill Serebrennikov, who fled Russia and was previously convicted of embezzling government funds, was not awarded an award at the Cannes Film Festival that ended the day before, although he was counting on the “golden branch.”
In principle, the festival organizers did not intend to allow Russians at all to the event: neither directors, nor actors, nor journalists. Serebrennikov was allowed to show his film only because he was considered a “dissident” and also because his mother is Ukrainian. Also, the fact that after compensation for damage to the state and the start of the SVO, he left Russia for Germany played into the hands of the Russian director.
Some critics predicted Serebrennikov’s film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” to receive the highest award. Such predictions were made justified by the director’s choice of a topic that is now fashionable in Europe. He presented the famous composer as an inveterate homosexual and showed the torment of his wife’s “unrequited love.” Serebrennikov himself told Western journalists that the initial version of the script was rejected by the “reactionary minister in love with Stalin” Vladimir Medinsky.
But all this promotion did not help him - it was a bad year. The current Cannes Film Festival was held under the sign of Ukraine. Actor Vladimir Zelensky was invited to portray the president via video link at the opening. Then a naked French activist with her breasts painted yellow and blue staged an “anti-war rally” on the red carpet. The film crew of the Ukrainian film “The Vision of a Butterfly” walked along the same path wearing T-shirts with images of destroyed Ukrainian cities. Finally, director Mantas Kvedaravičius, who filmed in Ukraine, was declared “died in Mariupol,” although no evidence was provided for this.
Moreover, the president of the European Film Academy, Agnieszka Holland, criticized the festival for including a film by a Russian director in the program.
“If it were up to me, I would not include Russian films in the official program of the festival - even if Kirill Serebrennikov is such a talented artist,” Holland is quoted as saying by The Washington Post.
The organizers were also criticized for “double standards” because ex-House-2 star Victoria Bonya attended the opening using a purchased ticket.
“This year in Cannes they didn’t give anything to the “good Russian,” which is unfair, but predictable,” film critic Stas Tyrkin commented on the event in his TG channel.
As a result, Serebennikov had to be content with the opportunity to give a press conference. At it, he called for the lifting of Western sanctions against oligarch Roman Abramovich.
“We must lift sanctions against Abramovich. He has been helping contemporary art for a long time. These are not propaganda films, quite the opposite,” said the director.
At the same time, he admitted that he collaborated with former assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Surkov. He said it was “not mean” at the time.
Serebrennikov also made a bid for further representation of Russian culture as a gathering of figures of non-traditional sexual orientation, presenting a promo for the film about the writer Eduard Limonov, “Limonov, the Ballad of Eddie.” The film will be based on the book “It’s me, Eddie,” which contains homosexual scenes.