Russian Director at Cannes Denounces Moscow Theater Trial

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, competing for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, brandished a picture of two theater artists who went on trial
in Moscow on Monday."They did absolutely nothing wrong, they just put on a show and they have already been in prison for a year,"
Serebrennikov told reporters at the film festival.The arrest of director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk in May last year
shook Russia's artistic community, already facing an increasingly repressive environment since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.The women have
been accused of justifying terrorism in their 2021 play about Russian women lured to marry Islamic State militants in Syria and tried for
terrorism on their return
It was awarded two prestigious Golden Mask awards.Serebrennikov, who has competed multiple times at the Cannes Film Festival, left Russia
after the invasion.His new movie, "Limonov: The Ballad," is an English-language portrayal of a radical Soviet poet starring British actor
Ben Whishaw.Serebrennikov told reporters in Cannes that Berkovich is one of his former students "and she is in prison for completely
invented accusations.""This is the real consequence of the law on foreign agentism," he added, referring to recent laws aimed at identifying
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