Nearly a decade after his previous film, Loveless, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, two-time Academy Award nominee Andrei Zvyagintsev (Leviathan) returns to the Croisette with Minotaur. The film is a modern-day fable about the spiritual and moral collapse of a Russian businessman whose world falls apart amid professional crisis, global turmoil, and an extramarital affair. Zvyagintsev, who had a near-death experience during the coronavirus pandemic, spoke to Variety about his recent Palme d’Or nomination.
You’ve been living in Paris for nearly four years after recovering from a life-threatening illness. Was it a political choice?
I spent about a year in a clinic in Germany where I was in a (medically induced) coma for 40 days before being unable to stand up. When I left the clinic, I moved to France and decided to stay in France. And I became more and more convinced that I should stay here. I have no desire, interest, or intention to live in a country that is at war with its neighbor.
Do you think you will return to Russia someday?
(Nobel Prize-winning Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov) said there is a choice: stay in your homeland but lose your freedom, or stay free but lose your homeland. My intentions are very clear because my actions speak more than my words. I don’t think I need to talk about this. You don’t need to pronounce anything. I think it is very important to act rather than talk. My actions are my language and my language is cinema.
Is that why you shot Minotaur in Latvia?
Since I couldn’t film in Russia, my only option was to go to Latvia. From an architectural point of view, it was the best choice.
Can you tell us about the events that inspired this film?
The main dramatic part will occur in September 2022, when Russia announces conscription (prior to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2023). Many, many people left the country for Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Georgia. People were running away. In this film, we witness political and social divisions that create two distinct groups in society. But I don’t want to tell the audience more than that or explain this movie. I dream of the audience walking into the theater knowing absolutely nothing about the movie.
For the past two decades, you have been documenting the social and political ills of Russia under President Vladimir Putin. How would your filmmaking be different if you decided not to go back?
I already feel a distance from Russia. I feel like I’m observing everything through some kind of cloudy lens. The more time passes, the less we may know exactly what the reality of Russian life is. But I’m not afraid to continue making films about subjects that interest me.
Like?
One of the ideas I have is about Greece 2,500 years ago. I only know from Plato what Socrates was talking about. But my films are about humans, and once humans are at the center, the subject matter is always the same. It doesn’t matter what country they are in.
Did anything change when you faced the reality of dying?
It’s lighter now. Knowing that the light could go out at any time made everything easier. I don’t have much time. After this experience, I became even bolder. As my expectations grew, I became even more extreme. I’m even more hungry now. I want to move faster. I would like to do one project after another. I just understood that I had to be brave. Easier said than done.
