"Minotaur," which marks the first film from acclaimed Russian auteur Andrey Zvyagintsev in the best part of a decade, received a heartfelt 10-minute standing ovation after its Cannes Film Festival world premiere on Tuesday night.
It is one of the longer ovations of the festival so far as this year’s edition hit its eighth day.
The crowd at the Grand Théâtre Lumière hailed Minotaur as “a great piece of work seemed, with observers calling the post-screening applause “wild” and “rapturous.”
The Russian-language film centers on a high-powered executive whose meticulously controlled existence unravels when professional crises, global chaos and marital betrayal converge, pushing him toward a dangerous breaking point. Dmitriy Mazurov stars as Gleb opposite Iris Lebedeva as Galina.
Writer-director Zvyagintsev is back in the Cannes competition after "Loveless" won the jury prize at the 2017 edition of the festival and Leviathan took home the 2014 best screenplay award. His Elena was honored with the Un Certain Regard special jury prize in 2011.
Given his track record, there have been high hopes for the filmmaker’s latest.
Co-written with Semen Liashenko, the film is a co-production between France, Latvia, and Germany.
The producers are MK2 Films’ MK Productions, CG Cinéma and Zvyagintsev, in association with Leaf Entertainment.
The co-producers are Razor Film in Germany and Forma Pro films in Latvia.
MK2 Films is handling international sales. Mubi has acquired "Minotaur" for North America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Latin America.




