Serebrennikov's film entered the main competition of the festival in Cannes | News from Germany about Russia

The feature film by Kirill Serebrennikov “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” is included in the main competition of the 75th International Cannes Film Festival, which will be held from 17 to 28 May. This was announced by its director Thierry Fremaux at a press conference on Thursday, April 14, in Paris.

The film screening will open with a picture called “Z”

A total of 18 films will compete for the Palme d’Or, the main award of the Cannes Film Festival, in the main competition. Among them are “Crimes of the Future” by Canadian David Cronenberg, “Tori and Lokita” by the Dardenne Brothers from Belgium, “Broker” by Japanese director Koreeda Hirokazu, “Decision to leave” by South Korean director Park Chan-wook.

Swedish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi will present his new work “Holy Spider” (Holy Spider), Ruben Ostlund – “Triangle of sadness” (Triangle of sadness), Tariq Saleh – “Boy from Heaven”. Other films selected for the main competition include Almond Trees (Les amandiers) by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Stars at Noon by Claire Denis, Brother and Sister (Frere et Soeur) by Arnaud Desplechin – all three director from France.

The list of works included in the main competition program also includes the film “Close” by the Belgian Lucas Dont, “Nostalgia” by the Italian Mario Martone, “RMN” by the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, “Leila’s brothers” by the Iranian Said Rustai, “Hi-Han “Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. From the USA, “Armageddon Time” by James Gray and “Showing up” by Kelly Reichardt are represented.

The opening film of the festival will be the film “Z” by French director Michel Hazanavicius, which will be screened outside the competition program.

The most prestigious film festival in Europe

The International Cannes Film Festival is one of the most significant film screenings in the world and the most important in Europe. It has been held annually since 1946. This year, due to the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine, the organizing committee of the festival decided to receive official delegations and individual representatives associated with the Russian government.

One of Serebrennikov’s works has already been noted in Cannes

It is not the first time that Kirill Serebrennikov’s paintings have taken part in the Cannes Film Festival. In 2018, his film “Summer” was awarded a special film review award. The picture won the award for best soundtrack. In 2021, the main program of the film festival included the work of the director Petrova in the Flu.

On March 28, the Khamovniki Court of Moscow overturned the probation of Kirill Serebrennikov, who had previously been found guilty of particularly large-scale fraud in the Seventh Studio case. The next day, film critic Joel Chapron announced that Serebrennikov had left Russia. The director currently lives in Paris and Berlin.

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Cannes Film Festival – 2021
Cannes are back. Eh, if the absence of the famous film festival in 2020 simply meant that stars in tuxedos and evening dresses would not drink a cocktail on the beautiful waterfront, that would be half the trouble. But in fact, the disruption of the festival last year due to the pandemic caused an unprecedented “traffic jam” in the film process.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
New films – we are talking primarily about auteur cinema – practically did not come out. To release a product in which millions of euros and hard work have been invested, to nowhere, to a pandemic world without festivals, is more expensive for yourself. No one will notice and no one will appreciate.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
It turns out that the producers were saving the footage for a long time in order to throw it all out at the right moment, when the familiar world returns. And this moment has come. The 74th Cannes Film Festival takes place on the Cote d’Azur from 6 to 17 July.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
For the festival to return, two things had to coincide: the success of vaccination in the European Union and the desire to preserve the cultural identity of the former world. Any cultural event is now a risk, but what can you do – you have to live with the virus.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
However, the festival is equipped with the latest pandemic technology: the film critics who arrived are unanimously surprised by the “spitting” tests for coronavirus. They say that it takes so much saliva for analysis that it takes at least ten minutes to spit into a test tube.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
For the first time since the Berlinale 2020 – which took place a year and a half ago! – Russian film critics and filmmakers were able to get to the big festival through closed borders. Forced isolation is over. And just in time: I don’t even remember when so many Russian films were shown at the festival.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
First of all, Kirill Serebrennikov and “Petrovs in the flu” in the main program. We have very little information about what is happening with one of the largest Russian artists in recent years after the Kafkaesque process, which is unclear even completed or not. “Petrov” must give an answer.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
The film is based on the sensational novel by Yekaterinburg writer Alexei Salnikov. What happened from the trip of the car mechanic Petrov, who fell ill with the flu, through the streets, trolleybuses and apartments of the Ural city – and most importantly, what will the jury see in him? Premonition of a pandemic? Dive into the Russian subconscious? Mystical and hallucinatory experience? And what is Ivan Dorn doing there? We’ll find out soon!

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
In the competition and “Coupe number six” by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen (pictured in 2016). Unexpected plot for Cannes: Russia, nineties, a young representative of the working class (played by Yuri Borisov, known from the videos of the performer Feduk) meets a Finn who is traveling from Moscow to Murmansk. The Finnish script was adapted to the Russian reality by the Russian screenwriter Lyubov Mulmenko.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
It will not be possible to tell about all the big names: the protracted expectation splashed out with fireworks of big names. Here is the old master Paul Verhoeven and his Benedetta about lesbian love in a 17th century Italian monastery. Provocations are expected from the film, but in our time to achieve a provocation, you need to try hard.

Cannes Film Festival – 2021
And most of all they are waiting for “Annette” by the Frenchman Leos Carax: a musical, but, according to rumors, more than a musical. A stand-up comedian and opera singer gives birth to a daughter with a mysterious gift and turns the whole old life of the couple upside down, and, it seems, the whole old world as a whole.
Author: Dmitry Vachedin