Zvyagintsev Returns to Cannes After 90% Lung Damage, Exile
SkimNews Take
Zvyagintsev's return to filmmaking after severe Covid-19 infection suggests that the physical and mental toll of long-term illness can reshape an artist's perspective, potentially influencing the themes and emotional depth of their subsequent work.
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- Andrey Zvyagintsev learned of Russia's invasion of Ukraine while hospitalized in Hanover, Germany with 90% lung damage from a severe COVID-19 infection, spending 11 months in assorted hospitals and being unable to move or feel his limbs for several months.
- Zvyagintsev's new film 'Minotaur,' an adaptation of Claude Chabrol's 1969 erotic thriller 'The Unfaithful Wife,' premieres at Cannes on Tuesday and competes for the Palme d'Or against Pedro Almodóvar, László Nemes, and Asghar Farhadi.
- Zvyagintsev cut commercial ties with Russia during his COVID recovery, telling interviewers he chose exile in France 'because I don't want to be associated with what my country has done' — making 'Minotaur' his first film without Russian state funding.
- 'Minotaur' is the first of Zvyagintsev's last five films not to be scripted by his former writing partner Oleg Negin, who remained in Russia, and was shot in Riga, Latvia, though set in the fictional Russian town of Krasnoborsk in 2022.
- 'Leviathan' (2014), which launched Zvyagintsev's global reputation at Cannes, received 35% of its budget from the Russian ministry of culture; the then-minister Vladimir Medinsky later accused the director of caring only about 'fame, red carpets, and statuettes' — and Medinsky is now heading Russia's delegation in peace talks with Ukraine.
- Zvyagintsev, 62, has not previously won the Palme d'Or despite taking best screenplay and jury prizes at Cannes; University College London's Julian Graffy called the nine-year absence a loss felt 'most keenly' among the new wave of Russian directors whose careers were broken by Russia's political turn.
Why it matters: Zvyagintsev's return is being framed by film scholars as the most significant comeback among Russian directors silenced or sidelined by the political climate since the Ukraine invasion — his first Cannes entry in nine years lands at a festival where Russia's cultural footprint has been steadily erased, and the irony cuts deep: the same culture minister who publicly rebuked him now leads Moscow's peace delegation with Ukraine.
