A macabre holiday in the film adaptation of the cult novel.
When the Petrov family from Yekaterinburg—a car mechanic/comic book artist, his wife, a librarian, and their eight-year-old son—catch the flu on New Year’s Eve, their real life gets mixed with hallucinations. Kirill Serebrennikov’s surrealist drama, based on Alexey Salnikov’s novel, premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
Originally transformed into a play at Moscow’s Gogol Center (2020), Petrov’s Flu is Kirill Serebrennikov’s first film since his release from house arrest. Thematically echoing another nightmarish picture about the New Year, Vasily Sigarev’s The Land of Oz, also filmed in Yekaterinburg (2015), Serebrennikov's work is notable for its virtuoso, stylistically diverse cinematography of Vladislav Opelyants (Leto), who took the Vulcan Award in Cannes for outstanding artistic contributions.
Starring a galaxy of Russian cinema actors, including Nika nominee Semyon Serzin (A Man from Podolsk) and Golden Eagle winner Chulpan Khamatova (Doctor Lisa) as the Petrovs, Yuri Kolokolnikov (Argument) as trickster Artyukhin Igor Dmitrievich, whose initials form the Russian word for “Hades,” and Yuriy Borisov (The Bull) and Yuliya Peresild (The Edge) as Santa Claus and Snow Maiden, the film also features Gogol Center actress Aleksandra Revenko (Call DiCaprio!), Chicks star Varvara Shmykova, theater director Nikolai Kolyada, as well as musicians Ivan Dorn and Husky in supporting roles.
Petrov’s Flu
Dir. Kirill Serebrennikov
Russia, France, Switzerland, 2021. 145 min. 18+