"You can choose to be Leni Riefenstahl or Marlene Dietrich."
Horrified by the war in Ukraine, filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, now based in Berlin, told AFP he left his native Russia for a matter of
"conscience".
By referring to the leading filmmaker of the Third Reich and the legendary actress engaged against Nazism, the one who is nicknamed the terrible child of Russian cinema and theater evokes the choices, even the dilemmas, faced by artists in Russia. today.
If the artists
“decide to live forever in Moscow and work for power, that's their choice, I don't want to judge them
,” he explains
.
"
Others try to start a whole new life, (...) it is their choice too”,
affirms Kirill Serebrennikov during the interview conducted at the Deutsches Theater.
“I made my choice.
I can only speak for myself”,
he adds, claiming to feel
“horror, sadness, shame and pain”
in the face of the Russian invasion.
Especially since he is the son of a Ukrainian.
“In my Soviet passport, I was Ukrainian.
My mother had encouraged me not to put “Jewish” like my father, because it was “safer”.
Then, afterwards, everyone had become Russian”,
evokes the director.
To discover
YOUR COMMUNE - The results of the second round of the presidential election in your area
Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection
Read alsoWhile in Paris, Kirill Serebrennikov savors his newfound freedom
Leaving Moscow legally a month ago, after a remission in an embezzlement case deemed politicized by his supporters, he also says he is
"privileged"
, with an apartment in Berlin and invitations all over Europe: he is
are about to present a film at the Cannes Film Festival, an opera in Amsterdam and a play at the Avignon Festival.
"Some artists (...) have no money, no visa
," says the 52-year-old filmmaker.
But he also left because he
“felt inside this war”.
It is a question of conscience ,
assures Serebrennikov who was in full turning of
Limonov
, on the Russian dissident.
Read alsoKirill Serebrennikov at the opening of the Avignon Festival but still banned from leaving Russia
He does not know when he will see his homeland or his 90-year-old father, who has remained in Rostov-on-the-Don, his hometown on the border with Ukraine, again.
He does not want to speak of exile but of a
“new page in my life”
.
According to him, the Iron Curtain is worse than in Soviet times.
“Towards the end of the USSR there was a smell of rot, it was clear that it was over.
Today, and I don't want to play the Cassandre, this taste of blood and fear will make many people suffer
.
For him, the
"horrible murders
(in Ukraine editor's note)
look like self-destruction",
considering that the conflict is the result of
"several years of terrible propaganda"
.
"Hounds of War"
However, he remains uncomfortable with the
"injunctions"
addressed to Russian artists.
“It's not really great when someone forces you to say yes or no.
It reminds us
(the Russians editor's note)
of something
.
And even if the idea that artists become
“dogs of war”
bristles at him, he assures:
“You can choose to be
Leni Riefenstahl
or
Marlene Dietrich
;
it's a choice and we have to respect it”
.
In Russia,
“Almost every day there are lawsuits against people for writing on social media and articles or holding a sign that says 'No to War'.
You say something and immediately the police arrest you
.
He considers that there are several forms of resistance.
He cites as an example of directors who refused to receive their prize at the prestigious Golden Mask ceremony, preferring to dedicate it to Dmitry Muratov, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and editor-in-chief of the investigative journal
Novaya Gazeta
.
"We also tried to protect an artist
(Sasha Skochilenko, editor's note)
who had changed
price tags
in supermarkets with information about the war.
(…) She is in prison today.”
Read alsoBoarding for Cannes: Nanni Moretti acclaimed, Kirill Serebrennikov regretted and a Cannes heist
Known for his daring creations, his support for LGBT + people, the artist was sentenced in 2020 for embezzlement to a three-year suspended prison sentence, with a ban on leaving Russia.
Is he an activist?
Dissident?
The director of
Leto
and
The Fever of Petrov
, “just wants
to be an artist”
.
But, he nuances,
"sometimes people who do theater or art say: 'I have nothing to do with politics' but, in general, art is policy”
.
He will try to go
“for one day”
to Cannes, where he will present his film on
The Wife of Tchaikovsky
, a genius whose private life is
“totally ignored by the Russians”
.
Affirming to
"understand"
the calls of Ukrainians for the boycott of Russian films, he specifies:
"It is not Tchaikovsky who is bombing, any more than me... Boycotting culture is a continuation of the war"
.