2024-08-05 13:06:43
Guest of the series “In Conversation with…” at the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, Andrei Zvyagintsev indicated that the eternal challenge in his works is to gain the trust of the audience, noting that cinema is much more than just entertainment, but a place of refuge, exchange and learning, open to the world.
Winner of the Golden Lion and the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best First Film at the 60th Venice Film Festival for his film “The Return” (2003), he noted that he places particular importance on choosing actors who can play any character realistically, adding that his goal is to convince the viewer, by immersing them in the heart of the facts in an effective and real way.
Comparing the challenges the director faces in his daily work to “being faced with a mountain,” Andrei Zvyagintsev said it is essential to surpass oneself, abandoning easy choices in favor of taking risks, in order to be able to carve out one’s own path.
Regarding his new film, the Russian director said that filming will begin soon in France, Spain and Lithuania, without being able to give further details, considering that he cannot summarize a film in an idea or a few sentences.
Born in 1964, Andrei Zvyagintsev trained at the Novosibirsk Theatre Institute and the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow. He has since performed on stage, on television and in film. In 2003, he directed his first film, The Return, which won the Golden Lion and the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best First Film at the 60th Venice Film Festival.
His second film, The Banishment (2007), in competition for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, earned Konstantin Lavronenko the first Russian Best Actor Award.
In 2011, his third film, Elena, won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section. Leviathan (2014), co-written with Oleg Negin, won the Screenplay Award in competition at Cannes and the following year, the first Golden Globe for a Russian film since 1969.
Loveless (2017) won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. It won the César Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a first for Russian cinema. In 2018, it returned to the Cannes Film Festival as a member of the Jury. Andrei Zvyagintsev is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the European Film Academy.
“In Conversation with …” is one of the most anticipated events of the festival. It is a moment of debate and exchange with a wide range of renowned guests, including Australian actor and director Simon Baker, talented Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi, French director Bertrand Bonello, American actor Willem Dafoe, Indian producer and director Anurag Kashyap, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, Danish-American actor and director Viggo Mortensen, Scottish actress Tilda Swinton, Russian director and screenwriter Andrei Zvyagintsev, and American actor, director and screenwriter Matt Dillon.
2024-08-05 13:06:43