Kirill Serebrennikov Defends His Cannes Premiere as Ukrainian Industry Renews Calls for Russian Boycott
variety.comChristopher Vourlias One day after dissident Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, members of the Ukrainian film industry took to the Croisette to call for a total boycott of Russian movie.
Meanwhile, just steps away in the Palais des Festivals, the director’s long-awaited return to cinema’s grandest stage was overshadowed by questions about the festival’s controversial selection and over the film’s financial ties to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.Speaking at a politically charged press conference on Thursday, Serebrennikov described Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “total catastrophe” but rejected calls for a boycott of Russian film. “I fully understand people who are calling for boycotts.
I understand them because they’re so pained, so hurt by what is happening in the country,” he said. But efforts to ban a nation’s culture, he added, were an “impossible” feat: “I believe we shouldn’t boycott language, we shouldn’t boycott Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, deprive people of music, the theater, cinema.
On the contrary, this is what makes people feel alive.”The director is making his first appearance in Cannes since the 2016 premiere of Un Certain Regard prize winner “The Student.” Serebrennikov was embroiled in a long-running legal battle after being charged with embezzlement, on what his supporters say were trumped-up charges, and he was barred from leaving Russia.He was a no-show at the 2018 premiere of his rock drama “Leto,” which bowed in Cannes’ official competition, and he also missed the 2021 opening of “Petrov’s Flu,” another competition entry.
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