Biography

September 7, 1969 · Rostov-na-Donu, Rostovskaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]

Kirill Semenovich Serebrennikov

[press conference for Zhena Chaikovskogo (2022) at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival] You all believe that I'm only interested in the lives of musicians - not at all. It's not up to me to interpret what I do - it's up to you journalists and the public. But I am keenly interested in strong characters, people who stand out, people who can stand up to circumstance. We made this film well before the tragic events that have now occurred, which is a total catastrophe. We are linked to this catastrophe whether we like it or not. Is it possible to make poetry after Auschwitz? This film was made before the war. It's a story which comes back time and again. It's a drama linked to the destruction of a human being - this woman suffers from an obsessional love which leads to catastrophe and I'm sure this drama can be viewed set against current affairs.

[press conference for Limonov: The Ballad (2024) at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival] I'd like to stress once again that this is not a biopic of this writer, Eduard Limonov - it's a cinematographic adaptation of Emmanuel Carrère's book and Emmanuel Carrère created this character based on the lyrical characters in books by Limonov. He wrote himself about his own character, he wrote about these other characters; therefore, if you like, it's a triple creation: you have the creation of Limonov, Emmanuel Carrère's and then mine. I want to underscore the fact that it's called a ballad - with two Ls - because for me, it is a real ballad. The name Limonov remained because we refer to Emmanuel Carrère's book but above all I wanted to avoid making a biopic - it's a ballad based on Emmanuel Carrère's book which was a bestseller and it was suggested that I adapt it to the cinema.