A press release from the Franco-German channel Arte has announced a new film coming from Russian master Andrey Zvyagintsev, it’s called "Minotaur."
Zvyagintsev’s sixth feature is to be shot from September to November in Riga, Latvia. The film will follow "Gleb", a Russian entrepreneur about to lay off his employees, who discovers that his wife has an affair.
The film is described as a political fable mixing crime thriller and tragedy. Zvyagintsev hasn’t directed a film since 2017’s “Loveless.” He recently shelved what was supposed to be his next project, “Jupiter,” and is now eyeing “Minotaur” instead.
In 2021, Zvyagintsev was in a medically induced coma in Germany after undergoing treatment for a severe reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine. The filmmaker was in very serious condition, having suffered damage to 92 percent of his lungs. He’s since recovered, but not without having had to be hospitalized for 11 months.
The filmmaker was also in the middle of production for his film, “What Happens,” which was going to be his English-language debut. The feature had been included in an unveiled slate from Russian mega-producer Alexander Rodnyansky alongside a Steven Soderbergh co-production.
Zvyagintsev is a two-time Oscar nominee known for bleak Russia-set cinema. He won the Venice Film Festival’s top prize in 2003 for “The Return” and the Cannes Film Festival’s Jury Prize in 2017 for “Loveless”. His most acclaimed film is 2014’s “Leviathan.”