TrendPulse Logo

'Minotaur,' Scathing Look at Corruption and Infidelity in Putin's Russia, Electrifies Cannes With 8-Minute Standing Ovation

Source: VarietyView Original
entertainmentMay 19, 2026

May 19, 2026 9:33am PT

‘Minotaur,’ Scathing Look at Corruption and Infidelity in Putin’s Russia, Electrifies Cannes With 8-Minute Standing Ovation

By

Brent Lang

Plus Icon

Brent Lang

Executive Editor

BrentALang

Latest

-

Adam Driver and James Gray on Sneaking Out of the ‘Paper Tiger’ Cannes Premiere and How Hollywood Abuses Artists: ‘The System Is Designed to Humiliate You’

4 hours ago

-

Cannes 2026 Takeaways: Hollywood Stayed Home, AI Came Out of the Closet and ‘Club Kid’ Director Jordan Firstman Made a $17 Million Splash

9 hours ago

-

Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Green Thriller ‘Just Play Dead’ Scores Key Distribution Deals Out of Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)

23 hours ago

See All

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Courtesy of MK2 Films

“Minotaur,” a pitch-black look at corruption in Putin era Russia, was greeted with a thunderous, eight-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.

The film marks the return to the Croisette of Andrey Zvyagintsev, the Oscar-nominated auteur, whose previous films, “The Banishment,” “Leviathan” and “Loveless” also bowed at Cannes. Zvyagintsev, his eyes misting as the applause in the Lumière Theatre kept building, was flanked by the film’s stars Dmitriy Mazurov and Iris Lebedeva, who play a couple whose marriage is rocked by infidelity and deception. They were also joined in the auditorium by Boris Kudrin, who plays their teenage son Seryozha — at one point Mazurov tousled Kudrin’s hair.

Related Stories

‘Lioness’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ Actor Jay Huguley Joins Viola Davis in Amazon MGM’s ‘Ally Clark’ (EXCLUSIVE)

‘Minotaur,’ Scathing Look at Corruption and Infidelity in Putin’s Russia, Electrifies Cannes With 8-Minute Standing Ovation | TrendPulse