Baltic Filmmakers Bolster Ties, Set to Make Splash in Cannes

**Minor spoilers ahead for “Black Widow.”** Marvel‘s “Black Widow” had plenty of Easter Eggs and a big standout was the prison arm wrestling scene when David Harbour‘s Red Guardian snaps the wrist of a large fella that was willing to call him out on his tall tales of battling against Captain America, who is pointed out to be frozen at this point time.

Petrov’s Flu, directed by the dissident Russian film-maker Kirill Serebrennikov, who’s laying the chaos on thick and fast. I’m liking the movie but many others are not.

Watching the tumultuous and punishing Russian extravaganza Petrov’s Flu is like suffering a physical assault in a dark alley, or having a load of garbage jammed down your throat and piled on top of you until you just can’t take it anymore. Experimental theater bad boy and 2018 Cannes competition Leto entrant Kirill Serebrennikov takes a throw-in-everything-including-the-kitchen sink approach to painting an appallingly bleak portrait of modern Russian life.

Kira Kovalenko’s Russian drama Unclenching The Fists won the Grand Prize in Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar this year.

Christopher Vourlias Mubi, the London-based streamer and theatrical distributor that’s been on a buying spree this week in Cannes, has acquired the rights for North America, U.K., and a host of other territories for Kira Kovalenko’s “Unclenching the Fists,” which took home the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, Variety can reveal.Set in a former mining town in Russia’s North Ossetia region, “Unclenching the Fists” is the story of a young woman, played by Milana

Guy Lodge Film CriticCANNES — At a banner ceremony for female filmmakers, Russian writer-director Kira Kovalenko’s sophomore feature “Unclenching the Fists” won the top prize for best film in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival this evening, from a jury headed by British filmmaker Andrea Arnold.

CANNES, France -- Celebrated Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov is banned from leaving his home country, so he is attending the Cannes Film Festival virtually. Serebrennikov phoned into the red-carpet premiere of his film, “Petrov's Flu,” by FaceTime and spoke to the media on Tuesday by Zoom.A seat was left open for the 51-year-old director when “Petrov's Flu” premiered Monday in Cannes.

Christopher Vourlias Kirill Serebrennikov made an appearance by FaceTime on Monday after the premiere of “Petrov’s Flu,” which bowed in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The 51-year-old helmer is banned from leaving Russia and was unable to attend the opening.“I would like to thank everyone who is here.

Christopher Vourlias Three years after his musical drama “Leto” bowed on the Croisette, Kirill Serebrennikov returns to Cannes’ main competition with “Petrov’s Flu,” a deadpan, hallucinatory romp through a post-Soviet Russia in the grips of a mysterious flu epidemic. The acclaimed director spoke to Variety about living with fear and making the most out of solitude.How did you get involved with “Petrov’s Flu”? I was hired to write the script.

If you’ve ever fancied taking the train from Moscow to the far northwestern Russian city of Murmansk above the Arctic Circle, Compartment No. 6 (Hytti No. 6) will almost certainly cure you of the urge. At the same time, Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s second film, which is about such a journey, offers up vivid emotional twists and turns that are charted with unusual acuity, qualities that will propel it to a modest but well noted life on the festival circuit.

“Clara Sola” and a naturalistic one in the African film “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” and it’s even surfaced in Charlotte Gainsbourg’s documentary about her mother, Jane Birkin, “Jane by Charlotte,” in Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part II” and in Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World.”Of those films, most are by female directors.

He may be barred from leaving Russia and thus unable to travel to Cannes, but arthouse cinema favorite Kirill Serebrennikov is refusing to let that dampen his spirit ahead of the premiere of his latest movie, Petrov’s Flu, in the French fest’s Competition.

Naman Ramachandran “Postman” by Russian filmmaker Klim Tukaev has won the first prize at the sixth Nespresso Talents global short film competition.“Bagman,” by Jan Kellner, took the second prize, while “Speaking in Flowers,” by Nicolina Sterbet, took third.

EXCLUSIVE: Russian film promotion body Roskino has launched a new export initiative, Russian Content Worldwide, in a bid to aid development of international relationships and interest in the Russian content market. The initiative was launched at the Russian Pavilion in Cannes this week and is direct response to the growing global interest in Russia’s film and television sector.

Moscow-based Ilya Stewart is one of the international film industry’s rising stars. After founding production co Hype in 2011 with Murad Osmann, the pair have rapidly grown the outfit into one of the hottest names in Russia across commercials, music videos, and feature films. Unsurprisingly, TV is also now in the company’s sights.

Elena Lenina made a major statement with her hairstyle at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival tonight (July 7)!

Here’s the first clip from Russian helmer Aleksey German Jr.’s next title House Arrest, which is screening in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year.

Famous Russian film director Vladimir Menshov, known for crowd pleasers featuring everyday people, died July 5 in Moscow of Covid complications, according to the Russian film studio Mosfilm and Russian media. He was 81.