Director Kirill Serebrennikov in his native Russia under house arrest. On Wednesday, the controversial trial against him begins. His brilliant music of film “Leto” is now in the Western European cinema.
For many Western Europeans, it is likely to be one of the Cinema highlights of the year: Kirill Serebrennikows Film “Leto”, the celebrated film festival in may in the Cannes world premiere, and there was awarded. Since then he has been seen at several international Festivals and in Hungary, Poland and Estonia in the cinema. Now he starts in Germany (8. November), and later in Italy and France.
In Russia, too, Leto managed to “” in the summer (7. June), the jump in the Arthouse cinemas. There, he was discussed by many enthusiastic critics. On the day five months later (7. November) will have to answer Serebrennikov and three of his staff in Moscow before the court. The Director of the embezzlement is accused of state funds. He was rumored to have funding intended for theatre performances, abused.
Is made Kirill Serebrennikov a political example?
For many supporters of the Director, however: Kirill Serebrennikov an example is being made. “Of course it is oppressive measures, from intimidation to a totally unprecedented and incomprehensible brutality,” said the Russian film critic and Journalist Anton Dolin in a DW interview in August of this year. The writer Viktor Yerofeyev said the same thing, said it was a “glaring example of a show trial: His agony in the course of the year, starting with the brutal night-time arrest in St. Petersburg, the brutal relocation to Moscow, the cage, in which he in the court had to sit, to house arrest, which will always be extended: All this is a crucifixion.”
Waiting for a first hearing: Kirill Serebrennikov behind bars in August 2017
The authorities of the 1969-born Director is already long as it is not politically expedient. The house arrest was renewed just before the start of the process. Until April 2019 Serebrennikov is not allowed to leave his Moscow apartment, contacts with the outside world are strictly prohibited at all conversations must be with his lawyer and his father. Also the access to the Internet was locked for the artist.
Andreas Homoki: “Serebrennikows art can and should speak for themselves.”
All the more surprising that Serebrennikov, can work in Russia and Western Europe for many years as a Theater and Opera Director has a fixed size, in this Situation at all. On the weekend, Co-directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, was performed at the Zurich Opera house Mozart’s “Così fan tutte”,. With the help of his artistic staff, headed by Yevgeny Kulagin, and with video messages Serebrennikows, celebrated the Mozart Opera on 4. November in Zurich Premiere.
An Opera in Zurich, a movie start in Germany, the productions of a in his home country’s beleaguered artist in West Europe: How can the go? And especially: What do the artistic works? The Zurich Opera artistic Director Andreas Homoki said shortly before the Swiss Premiere in an Interview with the “New(n) Zürcher Zeitung”, he did not necessarily want to avoid the perception that his in-house use only “on a recent political history”. And: “Serebrennikows art can and should speak for themselves.”
Two charismatic on stage: Roma Zver as Mike (l) and Teo Yoo as Viktor in “Leto”
All Fans of cinema and those who are mainly interested in the work of the theater Director Kirill Serebrennikov, may now rejoice. “Leto” is coming in spite of the repressions in Russia in the German and Western European cinemas. It is a cinematic revelation.
“Leto” (to hide English: summer) in the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the mid-1980s. It tells mainly the story of two musicians, Viktor Tsoi (Teo Yoo), and Mike Naumenko (Roma Zver), Serebrennikov here – and the one woman between these two men: Natasha Naumenko, wife of Mike, as convincingly played by Irina star shenbaum.
“Leto” is also a movie about the legendary Russian rock music
Here, Leto is based on a true story. The one that Viktor Tsoi was the Soviet Union a well-known singer and co-founder of the legendary Rock-Band “Kino”. Mike Naumenko, a few years older, also a well-known musician, played in the Russian rock band “Aquarium” and reasoned later, “Zoopark”, the now legendary rock combo. Both died early, Zoi came in 1990 at the age of 28 in a car accident, Naumenko died a year later, probably of a stroke, at the age of 36.
“Leto” is also a mood Film about the everyday life of musicians
“Leto” is the story of the encounter of these two charismatic personalities, shows the love of the two to a woman, tells the story of music and concerts in a time shortly before Glasnost and Perestroika, of a sense of life of young people between the ages of awakening and rebellion. “It is the story of the last summer, before Perestroika, before the complete transformation of your life in today’s Russia”, described Serebrennikov the deeper meaning of his film in 2017, even before the filming began.
“Leto” is now a decidedly political Film? A Film that would make the sharp reactions of the Russian authorities – at least from their perspective – “understandable”? Yes and no.
Also a universal story about the sense of youth in the world
Certainly not, because “Leto” nothing else tells the story of young people in a certain age, their longings and Dreams, of coming of age in the midst of societal expectations. It is a universal story that could be anywhere in the world similar to told.
On the other hand, one may also say: Yes, “Leto” is a political Film, just because he also tells of rebellion and juvenile disturbance, from the revolt against the fathers ‘ generation, by the will of, existing conventions to break. And since “Leto” is also a movie about music (the Other also from the West, which plays at Serebrennikov a large role), works in him the stirring power and Emotion of Rock and Punk.
Under Police Observation: Kirill Serebrennikov
“Serebrennikows art can and should speak for themselves” – the statement of the Zurich Opera Director could also be on the “Leto”. The Film is a work of art, but also carries a lot of subversive (socio-political) messages. “That was what intrigued me first about this story: their innocence and purity,” says Serebrennikov about his Film. His Generation had a strong reminder of the power of Perestroika. But, according to the Director, “in reality, we know nothing of the Generation before our own – of their natural gift for Rebellion, and your inner fire.”
Serebrennikov: “a Film about absolute artistic freedom”
The film is told in “Leto” quite deliberately, just by the stage years the musician, not their early, tragic end: “My goal is to make a Film about people who are happy and in absolute artistic freedom, in spite of the oppression by the government.(…) We revive a culture that is for the Powerful and state cultural policies, is unacceptable, in exactly the same way as Leningrad in 1983, neither the time nor the place for rock culture in the USSR.” Sets, Serebrennikov said before the start of the shooting.
At the world premiere of “Leto” in may in Cannes, it came to solidarity actions
The could accompany the film later with the help of his comrades-in-arms from the distance. In August 2017 he was arrested and subsequently placed under house arrest. The world premiere at the Cannes film festival in 2018, he could not perceive thus. In consequence of numerous petitions (“freedom for Kirill Serebrennikov signed”) against the actions of the Russian authorities. Among the more than 54,000 signatories Oscar-winner Volker Schlöndorff, literature Nobel laureate Elfriede Blanchett Jelinek and Hollywood star Cate.
Serebrennikows appeal: “hang her!”
At his last hearing before the court Serebrennikov was grateful for the support from home and abroad: “you wish me the strength, everything, and I wish you the same. Hang on, because this is very important for me. I’m already in the mill, but I’m going to do everything we can to prevent these millstones to crush me.” – Now starts at 7. November, the trial against the Director and artist Kirill Serebrennikov.