Grigory Dobrygin’s film ‘Sheena667’ has been accepted to the Rotterdam Film Festival’s central competition

Sheena667, a new film by the Russian actor and director Grigory Dobrygin, will be one of eight films to be evaluated by an international jury as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger Competition. Dobrygin co-starred in the 2014 film A Most Wanted Man alongside Rachel McAdams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and his leading credits in Russia include Black Lightning and How I Ended This Summer. Sheena667 is Dobrygin’s feature-length debut as a director.

According to Dobrygin, the film portrays a couple in the northwest Russian town of Vyshny Volochok whose lives “are invaded by a third wheel—the Internet.” A description of the film on the festival’s website indicates that one of the main characters falls in love with a webcam girl from Georgia (whether the country or the state, they do not know).

The film stars Vladimir Svirsky (And Quiet Flows the Don) and Yulia Peresild (Secret Passions).

• The 2019 Rotterdam Film Festival will take place from January 23 to February 3. Sheena667 will be screened on January 28.
• The last time a Russian film participated in the Tiger Competition was in 2014, when Natalya Meshchaninova’s The Hope Factory was nominated.