From Paris to Berlin, Los Angeles to Istanbul, Russian filmmakers who fled after the invasion of Ukraine are slowly rebuilding their industry in exile. Many are simply grateful to be free. “Maybe I won’t be on any more red carpets, but at least I’m free,” said Mariya Shalaeva, a 42‑year‑old actress and director who left Moscow with “two children and three suitcases” after a brief arrest during an anti‑war protest. Now exiled in Paris, Shalaeva worries about finding decent work again, but she refuses to discuss material difficulties, calling them “nothing compared to the suffering of Ukrainians.” She is showing a short film at a mini‑festival of Russian cinema in Paris this week, featuring the last wave of independent films made before the war.
The situation for Russian cinema has deteriorated rapidly. Just two years ago, a film like *Captain Volkonogov Escaped*—a sharp critique of the Stalinist period—received Russian state funding and premiered at the Venice Film Festival. “There is no chance that would happen today,” said its producer, Charles‑Evrard Tchekhoff. Its directors, Alexey Chupov and Natalya Merkulova, told AFP in Venice that they were confident they could continue working in Russia. Today they are in exile in Azerbaijan and no longer speak to the press.
Many of the country’s best filmmakers share a similar fate. Oscar‑nominated director Andrey Zvyagintsev (*The Return*, *Leviathan*) now lives in Paris. Two promising young talents, Kira Kovalenko and Kantemir Balagov, have chosen Los Angeles. Balagov had planned to set his next film in his native Kabardino‑Balkarian Republic; now it will be set in New Jersey, where he can tap a sizable Russian diaspora. “Historically, Russian culture has always managed to survive,” said director Kirill Serebrennikov, a renowned theatre and film maker who was targeted by authorities even before the invasion and now resides in Berlin. The 53‑year‑old has shifted his next project from Russia to Latvia. *Limonov, the Ballad of Eddie*, starring Ben Whishaw, is the first major production from the new generation of Russian exiles and will tell the true story of a Soviet poet who became a bum in New York, a sensation in France, and a political anti‑hero in Russia.
Initially, there was pushback against including Russians in European festivals and cultural events—some Ukrainians were outraged when Serebrennikov was selected for Cannes last year. But “the vindictiveness has subsided,” said film expert Joel Chapron. The much‑lauded director Alexander Sokurov presented his latest, *Fairytale*, at the Locarno Film Festival last year, while a Chechen film, *The Cage Is Looking for a Bird*, played in Berlin last month.
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