Exiled Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev wins at the Sydney Film Festival for political thriller Minotaur

Russian-language thriller Minotaur won the $60,000 top prize at the Sydney Film Festival.

Minotaur comes from exiled filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev, arguably the greatest living Russian director whose past works have included the Oscar-nominated movies Leviathan and Loveless.

Zvyagintsev was in town to present his film and to accept the honour, only weeks after Minotaur was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

The filmmaker is a critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin and now lives in France. Minotaur is the first movie he has made outside of his native country and is technically a French production.

It is the first film Zvyagintsev has made in almost a decade. During the Covid pandemic, he was hospitalised for almost a year, which included a two-week induced coma. Minotaur is a triumphant return.

“I would like to thank the jury for this decision because this film means a lot to people who are struggling at the moment in Russian. The Russian language is struggling. This film is very important to them,” Zvyagintsev said through an interpreter on stage last night.

This year’s jury, which picks the winner out of the competition films, was led by Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonca Filho (The Secret Agent), and also included Ildiko Enyedi, Boo Junfeng, Ari Wegner and Sally Riley.

Earlier during the festival, Zvyagintsev had conducted audience Q&As after screenings of Minotaur and had been publicly thanked for his work by members of the Russian diaspora community who had been in attendance.

Minotaur – the title is an oblique reference to the 14 citizens sacrificed by King Minos to the mythical monster – is a loose remake of Claude Chabrol’s 1969 film La Femme infidele.

Set in 2022 months after the invasion of Ukraine, the film is centred on a businessman named Gleb, who discovers his wife’s affair with a photographer.

Like most of Zvyagintsev’s works, the film is a portrayal of contemporary Russian society through the intimate story of a family and community. But while Leviathan and Loveless were searing allegories about Russian politics, Minotaur is the most overtly political film he has made.

The film was shot in Latvia, doubling for the Russian suburbs.

Minotaur has also been programmed for the Melbourne International Film Festival, and will have a wide release later this year through Palace Films.

The Sydney Film Festival ran for 12 days and broke ticket records including a 30 per cent increase in the take up of Youth Passes.