{"id":1338,"date":"2026-05-22T14:07:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2026-05-22T14:07:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:07:39","slug":"minotaur-about-murder-and-corruption-in-putins-russia-jolts-the-cannes-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1338","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Minotaur,\u2019 about murder and corruption in Putin\u2019s Russia, jolts the Cannes Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>CANNES, France<\/strong> | Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev sent shock waves through the Cannes Film Festival with a soberly damning crime film about murder and corruption in Russia, set against the conscription of young men into President Vladimir Putin\u2019s war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMinotaur,\u201d which debuted Tuesday night at the French festival, was one of the most anticipated selections at this year\u2019s Cannes. The film rewarded those expectations, receiving one of the festival\u2019s most enthusiastic responses and putting the Russian filmmaker squarely in the mix for the Palme d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n<p>While \u201cMinotaur\u201d is outwardly centered around a married couple, its story has obvious political reverberations. Dmitriy Mazurov plays the chief executive of a large shipping company who, as Russia\u2019s military mobilizes for the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is asked to contribute a quota of 150 workers to the mounting war effort.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Mazurov begins investigating the suspected infidelity of his wife, played by Iris Lebedeva. As \u201cMinotaur\u201d evolves, their family drama takes on darker symbolism for the deceptions and savagery of Putin\u2019s war.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt was important for me to make this film given the current Russian context,\u201d Zvyagintsev told reporters on Wednesday. \u201cIt was a perfect pretext to say some important things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Zvyagintsev, it was a long-in-coming triumph. His previous two films \u2014 \u201cLeviathan\u201d (2014) and \u201cLoveless\u201d (2017) \u2014 were both critically acclaimed Oscar nominees. But during the pandemic, illness forced Zvyagintsev into an induced coma for 40 days. Recovering in a German clinic, he had to relearn how to walk and hold utensils. A year later, in 2022 and still in a wheelchair, he moved his family to Paris.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one of the greatest things that\u2019s happened to me over these last nine years,\u201d Zvyagintsev said of returning to Cannes, where his previous two films debuted. \u201cComing back after such a lengthy absence to the Cannes Film Festival is an absolutely incomparable event.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zvyagintsev had previously worked in Russia, and while his films resisted overt political statement, their critiques of Putin\u2019s government weren\u2019t hard to infer. Russia\u2019s Cultural Ministry, which had partly funded \u201cLeviathan,\u201d was highly critical of the movie, saying it \u201copenly spit on\u201d the government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMinotaur\u201d is the first film made by Zvyagintsev outside Russia. He shot it in Latvia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI perhaps lost a link when I left Russia six years ago, but I know what I\u2019m talking about,\u201d he said. \u201cI know how the people think, how they react, how they go about things. I know a lot about corruption, too, which has developed in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Zvyagintsev didn\u2019t make many direct statements about Russia on Wednesday, he explained how he sees politics filtering into his filmmaking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t want to make the most of the politics because that would discredit what you hear,\u201d the director said. \u201cIt was better to indulge in silence and rely on gestures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The broad outlines of \u201cMinotaur\u201d were inspired by Claude Chabrol\u2019s 1969 film \u201cThe Unfaithful Wife.\u201d Zvyagintsev first began working on it years ago. But after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine transpired during his recovery, the film began to shift. As in his previous movies, geopolitics seeped into a family drama.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more interesting than studying a couple,\u201d he said. \u201cEach member of a couple have to make choice, choices which call the relationship in the family into question. A family is like a battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1333\">Paul McCartney helps Stephen Colbert say goodbye to \u2018The Late Show\u2019 in ambitious final show<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1334\">Colorado Democrats overwhelmingly agree to censure Gov. Polis for Tina Peters clemency<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1336\">Six tax tips you should start thinking about now<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CANNES, France | Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev sent shock waves through the Cannes Film Festival with a soberly damning crime film about murder and corruption in Russia, set against the conscription of young men into President Vladimir Putin\u2019s war with Ukraine. \u201cMinotaur,\u201d which debuted Tuesday night at the French festival, was one of the most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1101,1102,149,150,166,167,1103,1104],"tags":[1950,831,1951,1952,1953,239],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-0-no-apple-publish","category-1gridmagazine","category-a-town-magazine","category-celebrities","category-credits","category-sentinel-screen","category-uncategorized","category-z-other-galley","tag-andrey-zvyagintsev","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-dmitriy-mazurov","tag-iris-lebedeva","tag-minotaur","tag-vladimir-putin"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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