at Lumière

PostED ON 14.10.2025

Village rendezvous

Joël Chapron, specialist in Eastern European cinema, discusses the book Le cinéma d'Andreï Zviaguintsev (Mimesis Editions):

‘It’s a collective academic book comprising of nine articles and an extensive interview with Zvyagintsev. I was the interpreter and did the French subtitles for all of his films. There are two sides to Andrei Zvyagintsev's cinema. There are the first two films, which are totally universal, and the next three, which are a beautiful attempt to explain the world, for example, what it’s like to live in Putin's Russia, but it goes beyond that. Zvyagintsev's cinema is highly erudite in metaphysical, psychological and, above all, biblical terms. Although he doesn’t consider himself religious, he’s someone who believes that everything can be found in the Bible. To familiarise yourself with Zvyagintsev’s work, I’d recommend starting with The Return (2003) and Leviathan (2014) because they say the most about Russian society and society in general, with all its flaws and compromises.

© Jean-Luc Mège