‘Minotaur’ trailer: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Cannes Grand Prix winner brings adultery and war to a Russian noir

The new trailer for Andrey Zvyagintsev’s ‘Minotaur’ previews the Russian filmmaker’s return with a tense drama about a businessman whose private life begins collapsing as the war in Ukraine reshapes his world

Published - September 15, 2026 10:22 am IST

A still from ‘Minotaur’ | Photo Credit: MUBI

MUBI has released a new trailer for Minotaur, Zvyagintsev’s first feature in nearly a decade and the winner of the Grand Prix at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Set in Russia in 2022, the film follows Gleb, a successful company director whose increasingly precarious position at work coincides with his growing suspicion that his wife Galina is having an affair.

Dmitriy Mazurov stars as Gleb, with Iris Lebedeva playing Galina. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifies, Gleb faces pressure from local authorities to provide employees for military service, placing his business under mounting strain. At home, his suspicions about Galina’s relationship with a younger artist push him towards increasingly violent decisions.

The trailer frames the two crises as parts of the same unraveling. Gleb tries to maintain control over his family and professional life while the political reality around him becomes increasingly unstable. The film takes its title from the mythological Minotaur, with Zvyagintsev using the figure as an allusion to the violence and brutality concealed within ordinary human behaviour.

Minotaur is inspired by Claude Chabrol’s 1969 film The Unfaithful Wife, which was previously adapted into Adrian Lyne’s 2002 thriller Unfaithful. Zvyagintsev relocates the adultery story to contemporary Russia, placing the domestic conflict against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

The film reunites Zvyagintsev with cinematographer Mikhail Krichman and other longtime collaborators. It also marks his first feature since Loveless in 2017. The director, who has been living in exile, previously won the Cannes Jury Prize for Loveless and Best Screenplay for Leviathan.

Following its Cannes victory, Minotaur has also won the Sydney Film Prize and is set to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival.

Published - September 15, 2026 10:22 am IST

cinema / Art cinema / arts, culture and entertainment

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