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| Director Kirill Serebrennikov |
The
Russian Association of Theatre Critics has
named director Kirill Serebrennikov as Person of the
Year for his “unprecedented dedication to theatre in circumstances of
house arrest.”
Serebrennikov
has been detained under house arrest since August
23, 2017, while undergoing investigation for “financial mismanagement” related
to the interdisciplinary performing arts project titled The Platform.
Prominent artistic personalities and professional associations in Russia,
Europe, and the Americas have considered his trial a politically motivated case
of selective justice, and called for his release. At the Europe Theatre
Prize festivities in St. Petersburg last November, leading Russian and
European theatre artists decried Serebrennikov’s continued detention and
repression, which added a note of risk and danger to the prize ceremony.
According
to the website of PEN America:
Serebrennikov has
been an activist and government critic, making him a target of repression. He
has protested against Russia’s involvement in the Russo-Georgian war of 2008,
election fraud in 2011, persecution of the LGBT community, and arrests of Pussy
Riot members, among other issues. He called Russia a country of
“unabolished slavery” where people do not value freedom and a chasm exists
between the people and power.
During
Serebrennikov’s house arrest, two
productions that he initiated were presented to the public: Così fan tutte at Opernhaus Zürich and Baroque at
the Gogol Center in Moscow. His film, The Summer, was presented at
Cannes Film Festival. The ballet Nureyev, which he directed,
and his production of Small Tragedies were nominated for the
Golden Mask, the Russian National Theatre Prize.
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