The 79th Cannes Film Festival concluded in Cannes, and its triumph was the Romanian drama Fjord, about a religious family from Romania who moves to Norway and is not prepared to adapt to the liberal rules of northern Europe. Andrei Zvyagintsev received “Silver” for his film “Minotaur” – the first feature film that seriously and uncompromisingly understands the “era of the Northern Military District.” Meduza film critic Anton Dolin explains why the jury handed out the awards the way they did – and talks about other films that impressed the judges and won prestigious awards.
The Grand Prix (i.e. the “Silver” Cannes Prize) for Andrei Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” is indescribably impressive. No Russian-speaking director has received such large-scale awards at the Cannes Film Festival in the 21st century. The penultimate jackpot winner from Russia was Nikita Mikhalkov. This happened in 1994, when Burnt by the Sun lost to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. In Soviet times, Andrei Tarkovsky for “Sacrifice” and Tengiz Abu Ladze for “Repentance” became laureates of the same award.
However, in recent years there have been Juho Kuzmanin’s Grand Prix No. 6 coupe and Sean Baker’s Anuri Palme d’Or, both partly filmed in Russian and with Yura Borisov. However, Cannes is a festival for directors. Where and regardless of the subject matter in which they are depicted, the nationality of films is determined by the name and biography of the author. Naturally, the Finns rejoiced at the victory of the No. 6 coupe, and the Americans rejoiced at the Anwars. Will the Russians be happy with Zvyagintsev’s victory? This is a question as yet unanswered.
The Minotaur was granted under exceptional and harsh circumstances. The war lasted for five years, completely changing the existence and structure of Russian culture. Many talented artists found themselves in forced emigration for political reasons, among them Zvyagintsev.
Under these circumstances, even after nine years of silence, producing an anti-war film with European producers in the Russian language and about Russia, which directly challenges the current censorship imposed by the Russian Federation, is a heroic task that seemed impossible. And to do so in a way that makes the film fascinating and touches even those who are completely excluded from the political context…
Zvyagintsev succeeded. For him, among other things, this exceptional success will certainly be a starting point that will allow him to implement further projects. But the Minotaur could open a door of opportunity for other Russians in exile, proving to potential Western producers the creative potential of similar projects.
I don’t want to fall into the common sin among Russian filmmakers, of feeling the victory of “Minotaur” as a defeat – after all, the film did not receive the main award, the Palme d’Or. The second time went to the talented Romanian Cristian Mungiu for the drama “Fjord”. The film was also awarded by two independent juries – FIPRESCI (i.e. Press) and Ecumenical.
The reasons are quite clear. “Fjord” talks about problems and conflicts within Europe. Its author takes a conservative position that is unpopular in liberal film circles – and this impresses many. Mungiu challenges the Scandinavian system of protecting children’s rights (and does so with money from Scandinavian film funds) and defends the right of religious conservatives to preserve traditions. Including imitating corporal punishment of children.
Perhaps not everyone in Cannes agrees with these theses themselves, but they intuitively feel their disruptive power. The pathos of Zvyagintsev’s most complex and innovative image relates to those political and social spheres that the world still knows by hearsay, without really delving into the distant and obscure material: some kind of partial mobilization, some conscripts, some kind of “SVO”. In addition, the geopolitical situation is changing very quickly, and the anti-war enthusiasm of many in Europe has faded: not everyone fully understands how to deal with the devastating war in Ukraine in 2026. The jury has decided whether it is a case of “liberal fascists” from Norway, whose lawlessness it is easy, interesting and safe to expose.
One would have to think that the last thing Park Chan Wook’s jury members wanted was to shock or provoke anyone. On the contrary, they tried to balance everything – so much so that in addition to “traditional values” in Mungyu’s film, they also supported LGBTQ freedoms in the costume dramas “Coward” and “Black Ball.” In order to offend as few people as possible, they handed out two awards in three categories, for director and two for acting.
We’ve published separate articles on several of the winning films – not only Fjord and Minotaur, but also Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Suddenly (Best Actress Award for Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto) and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Vaterland (Director Award). It remains to talk about four more award-winning films.
“Black Ball” by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrosi (Spain)
Directing award shared with Pawel Pawlikowski
The duo “Javi” – as the director’s tandem is called in Spain – is participating in the Cannes competition for the first time. “Black Ball” is a full-length film, filmed after many years of work on television by the two Javiers. In the huge and strangely arranged picture, one can immediately feel the training of experienced serial makers.
The events of the rich theatrical drama unfold in three layers of space-time. The first, an abstract, features a young man rejected from an elite club on suspicion of being gay: it is a variation on the theme of Federico García Lorca’s last unfinished text, which was called The Black Ball.
The second, historical, is a dramatic story of two young men: Lorca’s lover, who was shot shortly after the poet’s death, a Republican officer, and his guard, who fell in love with the handsome prisoner.
The third line tells the story of the grandson of the same guardian: as an inheritance from his grandfather, he receives a treasure – the completion of the dying manuscript of Lorca, which was considered lost.
Melodramatic, lush, visually close to kitsch, the picture by Calvo and Ambrosi impressed the Cannes audience and the jury with the complexity of the composition and the ambition of the concept, which is based on the collision of several repressive regimes with the idea of absolute sexual freedom. In addition to Spanish artists known only in their homeland, Penelope Cruz and Glenn Close played in the “Black Ball”.
“Our Salvation” by Emmanuel Marr (France)
Screenplay Award
It is perhaps the most experimental and unusual film in the competition. Unfortunately, it cannot be said that the author (this is his first full-length independent film after his debut, shot in collaboration) completely succeeded in all the tasks set.
It is the beginning of World War II. Played brilliantly by Swann, Arlo (the lawyer from Anatomy of the Fall) is a self-taught social philosopher who arrives in Vichy to offer his services to the local government. He’s not sarcastic or professional. On the contrary, he dreams of benefiting France, for which he does not wish to do much.
Gradually moving up his career line, this idealist moves with his family into an apartment formerly owned by a wealthy Jewish family. Day after day, he burns at work, enthusiastically discussing with his fellow officials the issue of fuel supplies and logistics in order to more efficiently deliver trains to the concentration camps…
Cinema’s appeal to themes of Nazi occupation and collaboration, especially in recent years, is not surprising. The main Cannes program alone included several other films from the same historical period. In “Our Salvation” the author’s original approach is interesting. In the spirit of Ilya Krzanovsky’s “Dow”, Marr films Vichy France as if from a documentary, concerned not with the glamor of the modern viewer, but with the effect of extreme authenticity and virtual presence.
The scenery is monotonous, although it can be addictive at times. Sometimes the director breaks the Brecht-style illusion, and his characters in 1940s costumes start dancing to disco and 1980s pop music. After all, the situation depicted in the film is timeless.
The name of the film’s anti-hero is Henry Marr, and this is Emmanuel Marr’s great-grandfather. He wrote the screenplay inspired by the surviving correspondence between Henry and his wife: this poignant epistolary novel is heard behind the scenes.
“Dream Adventure” by Valeska Griesbach (Germany – Bulgaria)
Jury Prize
Another non-standard film directed by the brilliant director of the “Berlin School” Valeska Griesbach with the production participation of Maren Ade (“Toni Erdmann”).
As in his acclaimed previous self-titled Western, Grisebach productively rethinks the genre with the help of non-professional actors and cinematography, which is impressive. No wonder it took eight years to prepare and write the script. Griesbach herself describes reality as fantasy’s sparring partner.
This time she dissects the genre of adventure film narrative. The action takes place on the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, to the west and to the east. Once upon a time, the Silk Road passed here through the inconspicuous city of Svilingrad.
Visca is a strong-willed and independent leader of an archaeological expedition. One day, the excavations have to stop due to bad roads and broken down cars. Happy meeting with an old acquaintance and falling in love with him again, Veska was born nearby, gradually plunging into the deep past – the 90s: in those parts, apparently, they were also “broke”.
Suddenly she finds herself embroiled in a criminal conspiracy with smugglers, illegal immigrants and a charismatic local mafia leader, Elijah, who is as infatuated with her as Sayid. All participants in this love-adventure triangle are about sixty years old, and most of all they resemble the heroes of an action movie.
Just as Visca peels away cultural layers one by one, arriving at the fragments of the deep past, so Griesbach peels away the superficial signs of adventure cinema, leaving only the feelings and destinies of the brave characters. Moreover, at the center of the events of his borderline film, in every sense of the word, he places not a man, as the genre requires, but a woman.
“The Coward” by Lukas Dhont (Belgium)
Best Actor Award for Emanuele Macchia and Valentin Campani
The young Belgian director, in unison with the Spaniard Javier, although without a clear agreement, builds the film’s conflict on the conflict of war, closely linked to coercion, and the desire for freedom, expressed in creativity and the search for sexual identity.
Its heroes are the young conscripts of 1914, sent to the front of the First World War. It didn’t take long for them to find themselves in the trenches and they managed to become friends before their baptism of fire, while at the same time coming up with a common hobby: amateur theatre.
The two central characters – shy farmer Pierre and Francis, one of the city’s more relaxed residents, an apprentice from a tailoring shop – perform together on a makeshift stage, regularly trying on women’s clothing. Gradually they fall in love with each other.
The sunny and poetic color of this unusual war drama makes it similar to the film “Russian Boy” by Alexander Zalotukhin: in fact, there are no horrors of war on the screen. The ideas of the “coward” are equally noble and banal: fighting is bad, singing and acting in the theater are good, it is necessary to love, and it is impossible to hate. The development and resolution of the plot allows us to draw parallels with Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.
The language of “The Coward” may be disturbing because it is poignant, and the pathos may seem very simple, but it is difficult not to identify with the film’s content.