"The Apprentice" in Cannes

On April 14, the official program of the 69th Cannes Film Festival was announced in Paris. Russia is represented by The Apprentice, a new painting by Kirill Serebrennikov

A year ago, there were no Russians at all in Cannes, with the minuscule exception of short films from two film schools. This year, Un Certain Regard, the second most important competition of the world's main film festival, included Kirill Serebrennikov's new film The Apprentice. The point, of course, is the reputation of the director, whose films have already participated in prestigious reviews (and "Playing the Victim" won the festival in Rome). It is not for nothing that Serebrennikov, and only he, represents Russia for the second year in a row in the program of the most prestigious of the theatrical forums - Avignon. That is, in France he is well known and highly appreciated. But there is another reason. The Apprentice is a reworking of a play by the German playwright Marius von Mayenburg, which Serebrennikov had already staged at the Gogol Center, transferred to modern Russian soil. Her theme is religious fundamentalism in high school, modern martyrs, and the bureaucracy of the state. There is no doubt that the selectors saw here the very topical statement that they have been waiting for years (usually in vain) from Russia. No wonder the previous Cannes sensation associated with our country was Leviathan.

Several notoriously high-profile events are expected in the main competition. In particular, "Julieta" - a new detective melodrama by Pedro Almodovar, the plot of which is kept secret, and the lyrical comedy "Paterson" by Jim Jarmusch (the hero lives in the city of Paterson and his last name is Paterson: he is a bus driver by profession - and the actor's last name is corresponding , this is the villain from the new "Star Wars" Adam Driver). In addition, out of competition is another Jarmusch film, already a documentary, about the founder of punk rock, Iggy Pop. The Belgian geniuses, the Dardenne brothers, will show The Stranger Girl, a film about a medical woman who let an unknown patient die and now wants to know at least something about her past. Sean Penn will come as a director, his film is called The Last Face, and Isabelle Huppert as an actress, without which no festival can do. This time she played in the erotic thriller "She" about a raped woman looking for a criminal, and this film was directed by the great and terrible Dutchman Paul Verhoeven, who once shook Cannes with his "Basic Instinct". Among the young stars of directing are the Romanians Christy Puyu and Cristian Mungiu, the German Maren Ade and the Dane Nicolas Winding Refn, and the American Jeff Nichols. His "Loving" is a film that is predicted in advance, without looking, next year's Oscars. This is the true story of a loving couple convicted in the 1950s of an interracial union.

In general, there is no doubt: social and political topics will again be at the forefront, as happens almost every year. Serebrennikov's painting should perfectly fit into the trend. What will not interfere with the holiday of big Hollywood - after all, Woody Allen's Café Society Cannes with Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg will open, the first children's film by Steven Spielberg "The Big and Good Giant" will be shown out of competition, and the jury will be headed by the unrestrained Australian, the creator of "Mad Max" and The Witches of Eastwick by George Miller.