Dissident Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has backed the ongoing demonstrations in Georgia at a press conference for his Cannes competition entry, Limonov: The Ballad, saying of the situation, “It’s absolutely awful.”
The streets of Georgia are lined with young protestors urging their country to join the European Union (EU), and against a law that is expected to demonise many civil society groups as ‘foreign agents’. The law is similar to one introduced in Russia, and is seen as a marker of Russia’s influence in the country.
On Tuesday (May 14), politicians passed a controversial law which requires non-governmental organisations and independent media that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign donors to register as organisations ‘bearing the interests of a foreign power’ and presents an obstacle to Georgia’s stated intention of joining the EU.
Georgia’s president, Salome Zourabichvili, has vetoed the law. This is merely a symbolic act, as the prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party has enough members in parliament to override it with another vote.
“I am thrilled there are the demonstrations,” said Serebrennikov, who left Russia for Germany in 2022. “I don’t think we can do much apart from speak out.”
“We’ve been talking about this law for about a year now,” added one of the film’s stars Russian-born actor Viktoria Miroshnichenko. “I’m very enthusiastic when I see these demonstrations. I hope truly there will be no dire consequences following from this law.”
Limonov: The Ballad is based on the life of 20th century Soviet writer and controversialist Eduard Limonov. Serebrennikov was keen to express that the film is not a biopic, “but a ballad”, in which UK actor Ben Whishaw plays Limonov.
On why Serebrennikov chose to make the film in the English language, he said: “This film was imagined by an Italian producer [Wildside], based on a French book [Emmanuel Carrère’s Limonov] and shot by a Russian director. We wanted the film to be understood by the majority of people, the main actor [Ben Whishaw] is English, we thought it was quite natural for this to be an international film in English.”
Whishaw was not attending the press conference as he is in rehearsals for a theatre performance in London.
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