Minotaur Trailer: Andrey Zvyagintsev's Cannes Grand Prix-Winning Noir Lands November Release At MUBI

Almost a decade after Loveless, acclaimed Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev returns with a characteristically morally fraught drama, Minotaur. The film bagged the Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Film Festival. MUBI has finally dropped a trailer and announced the release date for its US theatrical run. It arrives in select North American theaters on November 20. Within the gap between Loveless and Minotaur, the filmmaker has dealt with severe COVID and lived in exile.

The latest movie is loosely based on Claude Chabrol’s 1969 psychological thriller The Unfaithful Wife. Zvyagintsev recontextualises the narrative in modern-day Russia. In the complex drama unfolding in 2022, Gleb is a wealthy local businessman whose personal life and moral compass unravel when he starts to suspect his wife, Galina, is cheating on him.

A two-time Oscar nominee who already has the Golden Lion for The Return, Best Screenplay at Cannes for Leviathan, and the Jury Prize in 2017 for Loveless, Zvyagintsev races into award season. MUBI is launching a campaign. Longtime cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, who has shot every one of the director’s features, returns behind the camera, while Evgueni and Sacha Galperine provide the score. For the first time, Zvyagintsev made a movie outside of Russia, shifting Minotaur’s production to Latvia to stand in for a document of his homeland at the dawn of the Ukraine war.

Minotaur is an international co-production involving four different countries: Russia, Latvia, Germany, or France. It's in contention to be France's Oscar pick as revealed in a shortlist announcement. Russia wouldn't submit this searing indictment of Putin. Germany selected Sandra Wollner's Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Everytime, while Latvia, a minority co-producer, chose Ulya. Minotaur has also screened at Telluride and TIFF, heading next to New York Film Festival.