Minotaur

We’ve had to wait almost ten years for Minotaur, the sixth film by Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev, and it’s more than worth the wait. There are several reasons for this long hiatus, including a severe case of Covid-19 that led to a prolonged hospital stay and even a coma, and the director’s exile following his criticism of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Zvyagintsev now lives in France, where he also found the inspiration for Minotaur: the 1969 thriller La Femme infidèle by Nouvelle Vague author Claude Chabrol. Minotaur is certainly not a literal remake; La Femme infidèle is more of a distant source of inspiration.

The film, shot in Latvia, is set in an anonymous Russian city. Entrepreneur Gleb is tasked by the mayor with selecting fourteen employees to bolster the ranks of the invading army. This, incidentally, is one of many subtle references to the Greek myth of the Minotaur – the body of a man with the head and tail of a bull – to whom fourteen Athenian youths were sacrificed. At the same time, Gleb discovers that his wife is having an affair with a photographer, which – despite his own infidelity – he simply cannot tolerate.

Adultery and its consequences appear to be the driving force behind Minotaur, whilst the war in Ukraine plays out in the background. But that changes as the film progresses. Although the consequences of Putin’s invasion are not always explicitly mentioned, they are certainly visible. So much so, in fact, that the key members of the Minotaur production team in Russia would be thrown behind bars immediately if they were still living there.

Zvyagintsev shows how major social developments intrude on everyday life, without ever reducing his characters to mere symbols. Combined with the thriller element of the affair, this results in a – visually stunning, incidentally – masterpiece that was denied the Palme d’Or at Cannes only by Fjord. Zvyagintsev is a welcome guest at Film Fest Gent and won the Grand Prix for Best Film here in 2011 with Elena. Coincidentally, that year the Georges Delerue Award for Best Soundtrack or Sound Design went to Evgueni & Sacha Galperine (for The Invader by Nicolas Provost), the brothers who composed the score for Minotaur.