Kirill Serebrennikov He is one of today’s most important Russian filmmakers and a world-renowned theater and opera director. also a fierce enemy of the regime Vladimir Putin. In his own time, he remained under house arrest for three years after being convicted of financial fraud, but the real reasons for his conviction are presumed to have been his views on the annexation of Crimea by Russia and other issues in the country. election fraud, persecution of the LGTBI community, disrespect for fundamental freedoms. Many, yes, reject the image of a martyr usually assigned to him because, they say, for many years he was closely linked to power and benefited from it. Now his tenth feature film is being screened in Spain. ‘Tchaikovsky’s wife’is about the innocent and obsessive young woman whom Tchaikovsky agreed to marry and psychologically destroys in order to hide her sexual situation from the public. With the film, he also points to Kremlin propaganda trying to hide his homosexuality in order to make the most famous Russian composer an icon of Soviet ideology. serebrennikov then fled from russia occupation of Ukraine. He currently lives in Berlin.
Before shooting Tchaikovsky’s Wife, you had wanted to make a film about the composer for many years. Why is there so much interest?
Because he was a genius and has great universal cultural value. But mostly because I think his story needs to be told to the Russian people, because they have no idea what his life was like. For them, Tchaikovsky is nothing more than a statue next to the Moscow Conservatory. It will be enough for them to read a book to know a little more about him, but the Russians do not read, they rely on propaganda. And the official power of my country offered to hide aspects of his life that they did not like, such as Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality or his sympathy for the monarchy. His biography and the letters he wrote throughout his life were censored.
You talk about the importance of telling your story to Russian audiences, but is it realistic to hope that the film will be released commercially in your country?
Not in the near future, I’m sure. Those in power hate him because I’m his director and they don’t like the portrait of Russia’s greatest musician. Corporate persecution of the LGTBI community is becoming more and more intense. We had to shoot the movie in secret because we were afraid we would be canceled if there was news.
‘Tchaikovsky’s wife’ premiered at the last Cannes Film Festival and surrounded it with controversy. Many felt that the competition should boycott all Russian filmmakers. How do you feel about him?
Tchaikovsky would have been horrified by this war, and so am I. Our cinema is not propaganda, we do not support the Kremlin narrative. Banning us only justifies Putin, who accuses the West of wanting to suppress Russian identity. My country’s culture has always promoted humanitarian values and been anti-war, and I know many artists who have lost everything, blacklisted for raising their voices against war. Many of us had to go into exile. Frankly, this is nothing compared to the tragedy suffered by the Ukrainians. In any case, the idea of canceling people just because of their nationality or language reminds me of Nazism.
For a while, years before the legal issues, you were very close to your country’s government and especially to figures like Vladislav Surkov, who is considered the architect of ‘Putinism’. Regret?
Like many other artists, I had a relationship with Surkov because he was a technocrat tasked with overseeing aid to culture. Until recently, creating art in my country was completely impossible without government support. And therefore, relationships like this were perfectly acceptable. Money from the Russian Ministry of Culture was used to pay for the wonderful works of art. But everything changed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The government became cruel, my relationship with them became impossible and they made me their enemy. ‘Tchaikovsky’s wife’ was not financed with public money.
It was funded by Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch historically linked to Vladimir Putin.
I will say the same thing that I have said many times before. Abramovich has provided invaluable assistance to contemporary Russian culture. Without your support, artists would not have survived.
How do you think the war will end?
I’m afraid it will end very badly. I believe that it will not be possible to stop the war, the barbarism, the madness unless someone presses one of those very dangerous buttons, because the regime in my country needs the war to continue in order to stay in power. We cannot have illusions.
When do you think you can return to your country?
Right now that is impossible and my heart breaks because my father is there, almost 90 years old and very sick. But I have raised my voice against the war a million times before, and the new Russian laws criminalize such dissent. An opposition leader, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for this, and many faced similar pressures. If I go back home, I’ll probably end up too.