Minotaur marks the first film from acclaimed Russian auteur Andrey Zvyagintsev in the best part of a decade.
At the film’s Cannes Film Festival world premiere today it received a heartfelt ten-minute standing ovation, one of the longer ovations of the festival so far. Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury hailed the movie as “a great piece of work” in her review.
The Russian-language film sees a high-powered executive’s meticulously controlled existence unravel when professional crises, global chaos, and marital betrayal converge, pushing him toward a dangerous breaking point. Dmitriy Mazurov stars as Gleb opposite Iris Lebedeva as Galina.
Writer-director Zvyagintsev is back in the Cannes competition after Loveless won the jury prize at the 2017 edition of the festival and Leviathan took home the 2014 best screenplay award. Elena was honored with the Un Certain Regard special jury prize in 2011.
Given his track record, there have been high hopes for the filmmaker’s latest.
Co-written with Semen Liashenko, the film is a co-production between France, Latvia and Germany. The producers are MK2 Films’ MK Productions, CG Cinéma and Zvyagintsev, in association with Leaf Entertainment. The co-producers are Razor Film in Germany and Forma Pro films in Latvia.
MK2 Films is handling international sales. Mubi has acquired Minotaur for North America, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria and Latin America.
