Kirill Serebrennikov

Directing

Kirill Serebrennikov

Born 1969-09-07 · Rostov-on-Don, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]

Kirill Semyonovich Serebrennikov (Russian: Кирилл Семёнович Серебренников; born 7 September 1969; Rostov-on-Don) is a Russian stage and film director and theatre designer. Since 2012, he has been the artistic director of the Gogol Center in Moscow. He has been described as one of Russia's leading theatre directors. Serebrennikov was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russian SFSR to a Jewish father and a Ukrainian mother. Having graduated from Rostov State University with majors in physics in 1992. Serebrennikov had no formal theatre education prior to his stage director debut in 1994. He went on directing music videos and commercials. In 2001, he staged his first production in Moscow. Serebrennikov has staged drama productions in Moscow Chekhov Theatre, Latvian National Theatre, Theatre of Nations. He has been active in opera staging productions for the Mariinsky Theatre, and the Bolshoi Theatre in Russia, where he has also been a stage director and a designer for a ballet, Komische Oper Berlin and Stuttgart Opera in Germany. Serebrennikov is one of the artistic directors of Territory Festival in Moscow. Since 2008, he is a professor of the Moscow Art Theatre School, where he has a class of actors and directors. His films have been screened at Cannes Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Rome Film Festival, and the Warsaw International Film Festival where his film Yuri's Day received the Grand Prix. In 2012, he was appointed artistic director of The Gogol Center. On 23 May 2017, Serebrennikov's apartment and the Gogol Center facilities were raided by law enforcement agencies in connection with an alleged embezzlement at the Seventh Studio, a non-profit organization established by Serebrennikov. While no charges against Serebrennikov have been filed, some of Russia's most prominent cultural figures saw the publicized raid of his apartment as a political gesture, discouraging Serebrennikov and others from criticizing the government. (Serebrennikov had criticised the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and has spoken out in support of Russia’s LGBT community.) On 22 August 2017, Serebrennikov was detained by the Investigative Committee of Russia, suspected of masterminding a fraud scheme involving a state subsidy the Seventh Studio received from the government of Russia from 2011 to 2014. In a verdict condemned by the Human Rights Watch, Serebrennikov was convicted in June 2020, fined, and given a suspended sentence. Despite being in a supposed house arrest in Russia, Serebrennikov arrived to Hamburg in January 2022.

Acting credits

Hardcore Henry poster
6.4

Henry, a newly resurrected cyborg who must save his wife/creator from the clutches of a psychotic tyrant with telekinetic powers, AKAN, and his army of mercenaries. Fighting alongside Henry is Jimmy, who is Henry's only hope to make it through the day. Hardcore Henry takes place over the course of one day, in Moscow, Russia.

Hardcore Henry

2015

Kirill Serebrennikov: The Art And The Power In Russia poster
NR

The film shows how the famous Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov reflects the events taking place in Russia in his works. We will see his whole career - from the first successes in the theater to feature films. We will see that the rise and fall of the director’s star is also a reflection of Russian cultural policy: from the short flowering of artistic freedom under Medvedev to a conservative culture, backed by authoritarian measures.

Kirill Serebrennikov: The Art And The Power In Russia

2019

7 poster
6.4

The film was conceived as a story about the history of the Gogol Center Theater and the case of Kirill Serebrennikov. But the circumstances were different. This is a film about a film that could not be made.

7

2019

I Am Katya Golubeva poster
3.0

The question is, whether Katya Golubeva, an icon of the European underground cinema, determined her fate with the parts she played, or the fate of her characters affected her own fate?

I Am Katya Golubeva

2016

Room 999 poster
5.8

In 1982, Wim Wenders asked 16 of his fellow directors to speak on the future of cinema, resulting in the film Room 666. Now, 40 years later, in Cannes, director Lubna Playoust asks Wim Wenders himself and a new generation of filmmakers (James Gray, Rebecca Zlotowski, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Nadav Lapid, Asghar Farhadi, Alice Rohrwacher and more) the same question: “is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?”

Room 999

2023

Stage — Rostov poster
NR

The debut of music critic Boris Barabanov as the showrunner of a new documentary series about the small homeland of big musicians. In the pilot series dedicated to Rostov-on-Don, Kirill Serebrennikov, Basta, Shym from "Casta", Vasya Oblomov, Sergey Pimenov ("PPK") and Viktor Pivtorypavlo ("Forbidden Drummers") talk about this city as a home, the first stage and starting station on the way to fame, the neighborhood of blatnyak and metal, hidden doorways, the first toilet actionism, endless southern rave and that "living in the past is the first step in the future."a sign of old age."

Stage — Rostov

2021

Fade:In:Out poster
10.0

About the beauty of films, departure, arrival, and the great artist Sergei Parajanov.

Fade:In:Out

2025

What Beat You Nothing poster
NR

Alla Demidova ranks among the greatest actresses to have graced the Russian-language stage over the past six decades, as well as screens big and small. She's famous for her tragic characters. Perhaps because she, above all, understands the world as a realm of worries and sorrow?

What Beat You Nothing

2021

Das Haus der guten Geister poster
NR

A documentary about the Staatsoper Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Opera) in Germany.

Das Haus der guten Geister

2020

Stanislavski: Lust for Life poster
NR

A story about Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski, a twentieth-century theatre genius. Owing to his powerful extraordinary talent he managed to stay a true artist and a free spirit within the harsh Soviet system. In the film contemporary theater and film directors (Kirill Serebrennikov, Katie Mitchell, Lev Dodin and others) show how Stanislavski's method affects their everyday work. Each of the directors finds his or her own reflection in the mirror of his genius. In search of an answer to the question whether modern theatre really needs Stanislavski they discover that art lacks its most essential part – the human being.

Stanislavski: Lust for Life

2021

Outside the System poster
NR

On the day of the 150th anniversary of Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky, an evening dedication "Outside the System" took place on the Main Stage of the Moscow Art Theater. The production is based on documentary material — letters, memoirs, memoirs, diaries, recordings of rehearsals. The fate of the founder of the Moscow Art Theater is reflected in the testimonies of his greatest contemporaries, friends, students and opponents.

Outside the System

2013

No artwork available
5.0

In the spring of 2017, the Investigation Committee conducted the first searches in the criminal case, which everyone now knows as the “Serebrennikov case”, “the Seventh Studio case” or “The Platform case”. Six people, among whom is a world-famous director, are accused of having stolen more than one hundred million rubles allocated for staging performances from the state. And for this they can go to jail for 10 years. Journalists Katerina Gordeeva and Roman Super tried to figure out the essence of this matter. We talked to people who know what theater is, including in terms of money. Studied financial documents. Communicated with those with whom no one had ever succeeded. They understood why the applause of the audience and the compliments of the Ministry of Culture turned into arrests. And of course, went to all court sessions.

Theatre Affair

2018

No artwork available
6.0

Documentary montage film by Alexander Vartanov, a subjective look at the beginning of the 21st century in Russia

.RU

2018

Protest Day poster
5.2

A day in the life of a typical character of Russian history, "the little man": a school teacher of Russian language and literature. An intellectual and his problems at the beginning of the 21st century. A day in the life of the country which Yesenin loved. About a country that still has hope...

Protest Day

2012

Behind the camera

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele poster
6.6

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor at Auschwitz, escapes to South America to rebuild his life in hiding. Through the eyes of his son who finds him again, Mengele is confronted with a past he can no longer ignore. From Buenos Aires to Paraguay via Brazil, the man who became known as “The Angel of Death” will organize his methodical disappearance to avoid any form of trial.

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele

2025

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele poster
6.6

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor at Auschwitz, escapes to South America to rebuild his life in hiding. Through the eyes of his son who finds him again, Mengele is confronted with a past he can no longer ignore. From Buenos Aires to Paraguay via Brazil, the man who became known as “The Angel of Death” will organize his methodical disappearance to avoid any form of trial.

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele

2025

Leto poster
7.4

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LPs by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoi. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.

Leto

2018

Leto poster
7.4

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LPs by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoi. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.

Leto

2018

Boris Godunov poster
NR

Nobleman Boris Godunov accumulates power in Russia, first as regent, then as tsar. But the ghosts of the past catch up with him and he ends up losing not only his power but his sanity. Russia sinks ever deeper into a mire of corruption, intrigue and coups. In his grand choral opera, Modest Mussorgsky deals with a theme that offers poignant parallels to today’s world: the extremes to which one man’s thirst for power can lead. The director Kirill Serebrennikov incorporates his own experiences in Russia to present his take on an opera about political turmoil and its consequences. Serebrennikov’s production focuses on the effect on the people of high-stakes political scheming. Conductor Vasily Petrenko makes his Amsterdam debut leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. A top-flight cast is led bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, celebrated for his ability to get into the skin of his characters both vocally and dramatically, singing the title role for the first time.

Boris Godunov

2025

Limonov: The Ballad poster
6.4

A revolutionary militant, a thug, an underground writer, a butler to a millionaire in Manhattan. But also a switchblade-waving poet, a lover of beautiful women, a warmonger, a political agitator, and a novelist who wrote of his greatness. Eduard Limonov’s life story is a journey through Russia, America, and Europe during the second half of the 20th century.

Limonov: The Ballad

2024

Limonov: The Ballad poster
6.4

A revolutionary militant, a thug, an underground writer, a butler to a millionaire in Manhattan. But also a switchblade-waving poet, a lover of beautiful women, a warmonger, a political agitator, and a novelist who wrote of his greatness. Eduard Limonov’s life story is a journey through Russia, America, and Europe during the second half of the 20th century.

Limonov: The Ballad

2024

The Student poster
6.5

A high school student becomes convinced that the world is lost to evil and begins to challenge the morals and beliefs of the adults surrounding him.

The Student

2016

The Student poster
6.5

A high school student becomes convinced that the world is lost to evil and begins to challenge the morals and beliefs of the adults surrounding him.

The Student

2016

Tchaikovsky's Wife poster
6.1

Antonina Milyukova is a beautiful and bright young woman, born in the aristocracy of 19th century Russia. She could have anything she'd want, and yet her only obsession is to marry Pyotr Tchaikovsky, with whom she falls in love from the very moment she hears his music. The composer finally accepts this union, but after blaming her for his misfortunes and breakdowns, his attempts to get rid of his wife are brutal. Consumed by her feelings for him, Antonina decides to endure and do whatever it takes to stay with him. Humiliated, disgraced and discarded, she is slowly driven to madness.

Tchaikovsky's Wife

2022

Tchaikovsky's Wife poster
6.1

Antonina Milyukova is a beautiful and bright young woman, born in the aristocracy of 19th century Russia. She could have anything she'd want, and yet her only obsession is to marry Pyotr Tchaikovsky, with whom she falls in love from the very moment she hears his music. The composer finally accepts this union, but after blaming her for his misfortunes and breakdowns, his attempts to get rid of his wife are brutal. Consumed by her feelings for him, Antonina decides to endure and do whatever it takes to stay with him. Humiliated, disgraced and discarded, she is slowly driven to madness.

Tchaikovsky's Wife

2022

Tchaikovsky's Wife poster
6.1

Antonina Milyukova is a beautiful and bright young woman, born in the aristocracy of 19th century Russia. She could have anything she'd want, and yet her only obsession is to marry Pyotr Tchaikovsky, with whom she falls in love from the very moment she hears his music. The composer finally accepts this union, but after blaming her for his misfortunes and breakdowns, his attempts to get rid of his wife are brutal. Consumed by her feelings for him, Antonina decides to endure and do whatever it takes to stay with him. Humiliated, disgraced and discarded, she is slowly driven to madness.

Tchaikovsky's Wife

2022

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold - Osterfestspiele Salzburg Felsenreitschule poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold - Osterfestspiele Salzburg Felsenreitschule

2026

Petrov's Flu poster
6.4

With the city in the throes of a flu epidemic, the Petrov family struggles through yet another day in a country where the past is never past, the present is a booze-fueled, icy fever dream of violence and tenderness, and where – beneath layers of the ordinary – things turn out to be extraordinary.

Petrov's Flu

2021

Petrov's Flu poster
6.4

With the city in the throes of a flu epidemic, the Petrov family struggles through yet another day in a country where the past is never past, the present is a booze-fueled, icy fever dream of violence and tenderness, and where – beneath layers of the ordinary – things turn out to be extraordinary.

Petrov's Flu

2021

Yuri's Day poster
6.0

Before leaving Russia and moving to Western Europe, famous opera singer Lyuba travels to her hometown to say goodbye and show her teenage son around. But Andrey, Lyuba’s son, disappears and she must stay in the place she hates the most to search for him. A piercing exploration of identity and transformation, against the backdrop of a Russian hinterland, surrounded by Orthodox churches and snow.

Yuri's Day

2008

Betrayal poster
5.9

While examining one of her patients, a doctor reveals that her husband is cheating with the patient's wife.

Betrayal

2012

Betrayal poster
5.9

While examining one of her patients, a doctor reveals that her husband is cheating with the patient's wife.

Betrayal

2012

Gentlemen Golovlevs poster
NR

"Gentlemen Golovlevs" is a social novel from the life of a noble family. The disintegration of bourgeois society, as in a mirror, was reflected in the disintegration of the family. The whole complex of moral relations that cement family ties and regulate moral norms of behavior is collapsing. The topic of family becomes topical. The attention of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in this novel is entirely devoted to the analysis of deformities, the study of causes and the display of consequences.

Gentlemen Golovlevs

2006

Undressed poster
NR

The film takes place in the attic of an abandoned house, where the photographer and his model climb three times. Experiencing another situation, the characters perceive it in a new way every time: tenderness and violence, sincerity and lies, fantasy and reality...

Undressed

1998

Undressed poster
NR

The film takes place in the attic of an abandoned house, where the photographer and his model climb three times. Experiencing another situation, the characters perceive it in a new way every time: tenderness and violence, sincerity and lies, fantasy and reality...

Undressed

1998

Out of the Box poster
NR

Abstraction about love and search, oblivion and rebirth. The story unfolds in a conventional space that vaguely resembles our world - one scene smoothly changes into another, and with it the characters of the characters and their relationships, music and visual images change.

Out of the Box

2021

Out of the Box poster
NR

Abstraction about love and search, oblivion and rebirth. The story unfolds in a conventional space that vaguely resembles our world - one scene smoothly changes into another, and with it the characters of the characters and their relationships, music and visual images change.

Out of the Box

2021

Nureyev - A ballet by Kirill Serebrennikov and Yuri Possokhov poster
NR

“Nureyev” is the award-winning production by Yuri Possokhov and Kirill Serebrennikov, which was controversial even at its 2017 premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre yet went on to become a huge hit with audiences. In 2023, it was removed from the repertoire for political reasons. The Staatsballett Berlin is presenting the production for the first time outside of Russia.

Nureyev - A ballet by Kirill Serebrennikov and Yuri Possokhov

2026