‘Put an end to this war’: Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev makes new plea to Putin

posted by Kristi Wachter on June 17, 2026

Resistance is

After winning the Grand Prix at Cannes film festival, the exiled auteur sent a direct message to the Russian president urging him to stop the war

The Guardian Philip Oltermann May 27, 2026

Excerpt:

Accoladed director Andrey Zvyagintsev has sent a direct message to Vladimir Putin urging him to start listening to the Russian people and end the “senseless” war in Ukraine, continuing a war of words between Russia’s most revered living film-maker and the Kremlin that started at the Cannes film festival awards ceremony over the weekend.

Accepting the Grand Prix for his new film Minotaur on the French Riviera on Saturday night, Zvyagintsev had appealed to Putin to “stop this butchery […] the whole world is waiting for this.”

Read the whole thing:

‘Put an end to this war’: Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev makes new plea to Putin

Tags:

Cannes film festival, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Film, Culture, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Europe, World news, Festivals

posted by Kristi Wachter on June 17, 2026

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‘Put an end to this war’: Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev makes new plea to Putin

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