Kirill Serebrennikov | |
|---|---|
Кирилл Серебренников | |
 Serebrennikov at the2025 Cannes Film Festival | |
| Born | (1969-09-07)7 September 1969 (age 56) Rostov-on-Don, Soviet Union |
| Alma mater | Rostov State University |
| Occupations | Stage and film director |
| Years active | 1994–present |
Kirill Semyonovich Serebrennikov (Russian:Кирилл Семёнович Серебренников; born 7 September 1969) is a Russianstage andfilm director andtheatre designer. Since 2012, he has been the artistic director of theGogol Center inMoscow. He is one of Russia's leading theatre and cinema directors and winner of numerous international awards. He was awarded theNational Order of the Legion of Honour of France on 17 May 2025.[1]
In 2017 he was arrested for alleged embezzlement of state funds given to the Seventh Studio, a cultural institution he headed. Serebrennikov spent almost two years under house arrest. A key witness confessed that she made accusations under pressure from the investigators, and the judge was changed. Media, international cultural community and human rights activists unanimously considered the case politically motivated and fabricated because Serebrennikov was known for his liberal and LGBT-friendly stances that oppose the Russian government's positions. In June 2020, Serebrennikov was convicted and given three years' probation. In March 2022 the sentence was canceled.
Serebrennikov was born inRostov-on-Don,Russian SFSR, to aJewish father and aUkrainian mother. His father, Semyon Mikhailovich Serebrennikov,[a] was a surgeon, and his mother, Iryna Oleksandrivna Lytvyn,[b] a teacher of Russian language and literature.[2] Having graduated fromRostov State University with majors inphysics in 1992, Serebrennikov had no formal theatre education before debuting as a stage director debut in 1994.[3] His grandfather Alexander Ivanovich Litvin[c][d] was a film director and screenwriter who worked atMoldova-Film from 1953 to 1972 and was titled an Honored Culture Worker of theMoldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.[4]
According to his mother, Serebrennikov was drawn to theater as early as kindergarten age. He studied at a math school and in 8th grade established his own student theater and staged a play calledShadow. Following the will of his parents, he entered the physics department atRostov State University [ru] and graduated with honours in 1992, but soon after graduation he started working on TV.[5]
Serebrennikov made his first steps as a professional director in 1990. In 1998 he emerged as a film director. In 2001, he staged his first production in Moscow. Serebrennikov stagedPlastilin at the Centre of Drama and Directing.[6] Later he worked at theMoscow Chekhov Theatre,Latvian National Theatre, and theTheatre of Nations. He has been active in opera staging productions forthe Mariinsky Theatre and theBolshoi Theatre,[7] where he has also been a stage director and a designer for a ballet,[8] and atKomische Oper Berlin andStuttgart Opera.[9]
For several years Serebrennikov’s career flourished under the patronage of "grey cardinal"Vladislav Surkov, the Putin aide who developed the notion of Russia’s "sovereign democracy": he even directed a stage version of a novel that Surkov wrote under a pseudonym.[10][11]
In 2006 Serebrennikov became an art director of the Territory International Festival.[12] Since 2008, he has been a professor of theMoscow Art Theatre School, where he has a class of actors and directors.[3] His productions have been presented at theWiener Festwochen[13] and theAvignon Theatre Festival.[14] His films have been screened at theCannes Film Festival,[15]Locarno Film Festival,Rome Film Festival, and theWarsaw International Film Festival, where his filmYuri's Day (2008) received the Grand Prix.[16] His filmThe Student (2016) was awarded a prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2009 Serebrennikov launched the Platforma art incubator, a platform that supported theatre projects around Russia. By 2015, more than 340 projects were staged and released.[17]
In 2011 Serebrennikov staged Rimsky-Korsakov’sThe Golden Cockerel for the Bolshoi. The play received wide acclaim and was perceived by many as a "biting satire" of the Kremlin.[18][19]
In 2012, he was appointed artistic director ofThe Gogol Center.[20] Many peers criticized his edginess and deviation from the conservative course led by Russian authorities.[18]Zhenya Berkovich, one of Serebrennikov's students, staged one of the first plays at the Gogol Centre.[21]
For TV, Serebrennikov has directed more than 100 commercials, two documentaries, 11 music videos, and three series. In 2006–07 he hosted the TV show ”Drugoe Kino” (”Other Cinema”) on channel TV3.[6] In 2007 he hosted the talk show ”Details (Talk Show) [ru]” onSTS.[22][6]
In 2016 his version ofThe Barber of Seville premiered at the Komische Oper Berlin.[23]
Three of Serebrennikov's plays received awards at the Festival d’Avignon:The Idiots,Dead Souls, andOutside (2019).[24] In 2019 he staged ”Nasha Alla” (”Our Alla”), a tribute to the Russian prima donnaAlla Pugacheva.[25][26]
On 23 May 2017, Serebrennikov's apartment and the Gogol Center facilities were raided by law enforcement agents in connection with an alleged embezzlement at the Seventh Studio.[27] While initially no charges against Serebrennikov were filed, some of Russia's most prominent cultural figures saw the raid of his apartment as a political gesture, discouraging him and others from criticizing the government.[28] Serebrennikov had criticised the2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and spoken out in support ofRussia’s LGBT community.[29]Vladimir Urin andYevgeny Mironov, among others, in May 2017 expressed their support of Serebrennikov in a letter passed on toRussian presidentVladimir Putin at a public function.[30] In July 2017 Serebrennikov's premiere of the ballet ‘Nureyev’ in Bolshoi was cancelled at the last minute.[18]
On 22 August 2017, Serebrennikov was detained by theInvestigative Committee of Russia, suspected of masterminding a fraud scheme involving a state subsidy of almost 129 million rubles (about $1.9 million) the Seventh Studio received from the government of Russia for the ‘Platforma’ project from 2011 to 2014.[31][32] Serebrennikov has been placed underhouse arrest until 19 October.[33] Seventh Studio former director Yuri Itin has already been placed under house arrest since 31 May 2017.[34] Ex-chief accountant of Seventh Studio, Nina Maslyaeva, gave confessions and has been held in custody since then.[35] Serebrennikov refused any accusations and called the charges laughable. According to him, all the money was spent for the theater that thrived and became a world-renowned institution.[36] On August 23, 2017, hundreds of people gathered in front of the courthouse protesting against arrest.[37] The case received significant media coverage and was unanimously perceived as politically motivated.[29] Colleagues told the media that Serebrennikov was hated by many officials for his views.[18] 34 prominent artists and cultural workers pledged to guarantee Serebrennikov’s bail payment.[37] More than 3500 artists signed a letter of support asking the Culture Ministry to drop charges from the director.[38] The prosecutors asked for six years in prison.[39]
During Serebrennikov’s house arrest, in December 2017 his ballet ‘Nureev’ was premiered at the Bolshoi.[40] Later, in 2018, the ballet received the ‘Benois de la Danse’ award.[41]
The trial was called Kafkaesque in the media and unanimously perceived as a political mock by Serebrennikov supporters. Though the ‘Platform’ bookkeeping was indeed sloppy, the prosecutors tried to claim that the play ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’ was never staged, though it was actually released, played abroad and won numerous international awards.[24][17] Key witness of prosecution Eleonora Filimonova later told the court that she was pressured and threatened by the investigators.[42] The house arrest was prolonged several times.[43] After 18 months,[38] in June 2020, Serebrennikov was convicted and given three years of probation and a three-year ban on leading any cultural institution with governmental support. He was also required to pay a fine of 800,000 roubles. Itin and Maslyaeva were also sentenced to probation.[44][45][46]
In February 2021, Serebrennikov was fired from the Gogol Centre.[47]
On November 12, 2021, Serebrennikov repaid 129 mln roubles claimed as compensation by the Culture Ministry.[48]
On March 28, 2022, the court canceled the suspended sentence taking into account that all financial damage was repaid and Serebrennikov received a positive profile during his term.[45] The travel ban was lifted and Kirill was able to leave Russia.[49][50]
Serebrennikov is openly gay[51] and is an activist of LGBT causes.[52] In an interview given toThe Hollywood Reporter, Serebrennikov said, “Look, if gay people are under pressure, then art and particular theater should be on their side. If there is trauma somewhere that’s where we should be — with theater, with art, with everything, right?"[53]
Serebrennikov worked fruitfully even during the home arrest: he watched videos from rehearsals, recorded the comments and sent them to cast with the help of his lawyers. That way he managed to release Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte” in Zurich and Verdi’s “Nabucco” in Hamburg.[54] In 2020 his 'Decamerone' was shown in Berlin.[55] In 2018 his movieLeto about Russian rock legendsViktor Tsoi andMike Naumenko entered the main competition of theCannes Film Festival.[56][43] In April 2021 Wagner’s “Parsifal” premiered in the Vienna State Opera.[39][57]
In 2017, the Bolshoi Ballet postponed the premiere of his balletNureyev to 2018 due to alleged "gay propaganda" being included in the ballet.[58] Serebrennikov opposed the2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, leading to first the temporary, then permanent cancellation ofNureyev.[59] Serebrennikov's balletA Hero of Our Time was also supposed to premiere at the Bolshoi Ballet in May 2023, however, that ballet was cancelled as well without explanation.[60][61]
In March 2022 Serebrennikov was chosen to open the 76th Festival d’Avignon.[57] His new play ‘The Black Monk’ premiered at the Festival in July 2022.[62]
His filmPetrov's Flu (2021) received the Vulcan award for best cinematography at Cannes Film Festival.
In May 2022, Serebrennikov became the only Russian director to participate in the Cannes Film Festival with his filmTchaikovsky's Wife.[63]
In 2017 he was awarded the XIVEurope Prize Theatrical Realities, inRome,[64] with the following motivation:
Author, screenwriter, playwright, stage and film director, professor of theatre, inventor of innovative solutions in scenography, architect of new theatre spaces, teacher and instructor, Kirill Serebrennikov is the artistic director of the Gogol Centre, Moscow, where he also teaches at the School of Theatre Arts. His wide-ranging activities can be explained in part by the fact that he has no specific theatre or film training: instead he has a master’s degree in physics. Often taken for a provocateur, what he shows in his work comes essentially from his open mentality, his vision, his many talents and a way of lateral thinking, that of a scientist or a true artist, who knows how to assess and understand reality in order to critically distil its fundamental aspects, and contribute to its transformation by letting the anxieties of our time find expression.[65]
| Year | English title | Original title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Undressed | ||
| 2004 | Ragin | Рагин | |
| 2006 | Playing the Victim | Изображая жертву | [66] |
| 2008 | Yuri's Day | Юрьев день | |
| 2009 | Crush: 5 Love Stories | ||
| 2012 | Betrayal | Измена | |
| 2016 | The Student | Учени́к | [67] |
| 2018 | Leto | Лето | |
| 2021 | Petrov's Flu | Петровы в гриппе | |
| 2022 | Tchaikovsky's Wife | Жена Чайковского | |
| 2024 | Limonov: The Ballad | English language debut | |
| 2025 | The Disappearance of Josef Mengele | Das Verschwinden des Josef Mengele | German language debut |
| TBA | Après | Post-production; French language debut | |
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