Advertisement

Ukrainian director Loznitsa at Cannes condemns Moscow theatre raid

Sergei Loznitsa promotes his latest film 'Krotkaya' (A Gentle Creature) at the Cannes Film Festival in southern France, on May 25, 2017

Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa on Thursday condemned Russian raids on a top Moscow theatre and its outspoken director, as he unveiled his new feature at the Cannes film festival. "It really drives me mad," he told reporters after the premiere of his wrenching drama "A Gentle Creature" about a woman up against the cruelty and capriciousness of the Russian authorities. "I definitely hate arbitrariness and that is exactly what happened in Moscow at Kirill Serebrennikov's Gogol theatre." Investigators searched the state-funded Gogol Centre theatre and Serebrennikov's flat in a show of force Tuesday, bringing rehearsals to a halt. Actors' phones were also confiscated as part of a fraud probe. Serebrennikov was taken in for questioning by investigators after the search of his flat which lasted several hours. He is a witness in the case of stolen money allocated by the government for the arts. The move drew strong criticism from prominent Russian arts figures including Bolshoi general director Vladimir Urin, who said he had written to President Vladimir Putin protesting over the handling of the investigation. Serebrennikov is a theatre and film director who was appointed in 2012 to head an ailing and unpopular Soviet-era theatre, remaking it into a contemporary venue with his own radical stagings as well as hosting film and dance festivals. "A Gentle Creature", one of 19 films in competition for the Palme d'Or top prize at Cannes on Sunday, tells the story of a woman who goes on an nightmarish odyssey trying to learn the fate of her jailed spouse. Inspired by a Dostoyevsky short story, she travels to a Siberian prison town to find her husband and hits a wall of indifference and sadism. Underworld types try to exploit her desperation, and an exhausted human rights activist warns her not to pursue her search too publicly. Loznitsa said that while the film offered an unflinching portrayal of Russian society, its themes were more universal. "You shouldn't limit this story to a specific country," he said. "It's the machine of the state I'm targeting. In most countries, there is a state and then the state machine."