"Retribution will overtake everyone. The power of the curse has not been cancelled." Kirill Serebrennikov - about those who judged Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk

Director Kirill Serebrennikov commented on the verdict of the 2nd Western District Military Court, which sentenced director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to six years in prison in the case of “justifying terrorism.”

Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk were given 6 years in prison. Six years of real imprisonment. For nothing! Without any guilt! On the same day, Russian missiles also mercilessly destroyed a children's hospital in Kyiv. I am asked for comments. I have nothing new to say, except one thing: the Russian state is a cannibal, the Russian government is criminal, and those who serve it are also criminals and cannibals. When this criminal, cannibalistic evil ends, it is important that they all - the criminals, the cannibals - are named and punished. I am sure that Sveta and Zhenya will not serve the full term. They will be released before these six years. And those scoundrels who torture and kill before our eyes will sit in their places. Both in the war and in this Russian "court". Retribution will catch up with them, each one. Each one! For now, I can only say one thing about these cannibals: CURSED BE THEM! The power of the CURSE has not been cancelled.

• Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk were detained in early May 2023 and accused of "justifying terrorism" because of the play "Finist the Clear Falcon". The production tells the story of Russian girls who leave for Syria to find their fiancés. In 2022, the play received the Golden Mask. However, the investigation saw in it "signs of the ideology of radical feminism", as well as the romanticization of the image of a terrorist and discrimination against Russian men.
• Berkovich is Serebrennikov's student. He wrote her a letter in the pretrial detention center, and in May 2024, he came to a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, where his film "Limonov" was premiering, with a photo of Berkovich and Petriychuk and spoke in their support, calling the investigation's charges "far-fetched."