Kommersant FM correspondent talks about the meeting of the Moscow City Court. “We have an absolutely slave psychology”: how Alexey Serebryakov explained his departure to Canada to “Arguments and Facts”

Irish philosopher

Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wills Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde

English philosopher, esthete, writer, poet of Irish origin. One of the most famous playwrights late Victorian period.

The Picture of Dorian Grey

Oscar Wilde's only published novel. In terms of genre, it is a mixture of an educational novel with a moral parable. Exists in two versions - in 13 chapters and in 20 chapters. It became Wilde's most successful work and was filmed more than 30 times.

In terms of genre, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is a conte philosophique, an intellectual and allegorical story, so popular during the Enlightenment, but written from the standpoint of the decadence of the end of the century. In Dorian Gray, the main character of the novel, the features of a new Faust are discernible. Lord Henry plays the role of Mephistopheles; throughout the entire novel he seduces Dorian Gray with the ideas of new hedonism, turning an innocent and talented young man into a vicious monster. Sibylla Vane plays the role of Margarita, and the new Valentine is James Vane. As you know, Faust also received eternal youth from Mephistopheles.

Main characters

Dorian Gray- a young man endowed with incredible beauty. Falling under the influence of the ideas of new hedonism preached by Lord Henry, he devotes his life to the thirst for pleasure and vice. This is a dual figure. It combines subtle esthete and even a romantic and vicious, ruthless criminal and libertine. These two opposite sides of his character are in constant struggle with each other. This duality of the hero is characteristic of many Gothic novels.

Basil Hallward - the artist who painted the portrait of Dorian Gray. He is distinguished from other heroes by his extreme affection for Dorian Gray, in whom he sees the ideal of beauty and humanity. In other words, he is Dorian Gray's failed guardian angel.

Lord Henry- aristocrat, preacher of the ideas of new hedonism, “Prince of Paradoxes.” His paradoxical, contradictory thinking is imbued with criticism of the entire Victorian English society. He is a kind of Mephistopheles for Dorian Gray.

Sybil Vane- actress, one of the most amazing characters in the novel. Before meeting Dorian, she lived in her fictional world, the world of theater, was talented actress. Love showed her all the artificiality of her world, where she did not live, but only played. With love, the talent in her soul will disappear, as she tries to break out of the world of illusions into the real world. But this is precisely what leads to her death.

James Wayne- Sibyl's brother, a sailor. A man of military bearing, who practically lost the meaning of life after Sybil’s suicide. Finds peace in the desire for revenge.

Brief summary of the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

On a sunny summer day, the talented painter Basil Hallward receives in his studio his old friend Lord Henry Wotton, an epicurean esthete, the “Prince of Paradox,” as one of the characters defines it. In the latter, the features of Oscar Wilde, well known to contemporaries, are easily recognizable; the author of the novel “gives” him the predominant number of his famous aphorisms. Captivated by a new idea, Hallward enthusiastically works on a portrait of an unusually handsome young man whom he recently met. Tom is twenty years old; his name is Dorian Gray.

Soon the sitter appears, listening with interest to the paradoxical judgments of the weary hedonist; Dorian's young beauty, which captivated Basil, does not leave Lord Henry indifferent. But the portrait is finished; those present admire his perfection. Golden-haired, adoring everything beautiful and liking himself, Dorian dreams out loud: “If only the portrait could change, and I could always remain as I am!” Touched, Basil gives the portrait to the young man.

Ignoring Basil's sluggish resistance, Dorian accepts Lord Henry's invitation and, with the latter's active participation, plunges into social life; attends dinner parties, spends evenings at the opera. Meanwhile, on a visit to his uncle Lord Farmer, Lord Henry learns of the dramatic circumstances of Dorian's origins: raised by a wealthy guardian, he painfully endured the early death of his mother, in defiance of family traditions who fell in love and threw in her lot with an unknown infantry officer (at the instigation of his influential father-in-law, he was soon killed in a duel).

Meanwhile, Dorian himself falls in love with the aspiring actress Sibyl Vane - “a girl of about seventeen, with a face as delicate as a flower, with a Greek head entwined in dark braids. Eyes are blue lakes of passion, lips are rose petals”; she plays with amazing spirituality on the squalid stage of a beggarly theater in the East Indies best roles Shakespearean repertoire. In turn, Sibile, eking out a half-starved existence with her mother and brother, sixteen-year-old James, who is preparing to sail as a sailor on a merchant ship to Australia, Dorian seems to be an incarnate miracle - a “Prince Charming”, descended from transcendental heights. Her lover does not know that in her life there is also a secret carefully guarded from prying eyes: both Sybil and James are illegitimate children, fruits of love union, who at one time connected their mother, a “tormented, withered woman” serving in the same theater, with a man of an alien class.

Having found in Sybil the living embodiment of beauty and talent, the naive idealist Dorian triumphantly informs Basil and Lord Henry of his engagement. The future of their ward fills both with anxiety; however, both of them willingly accept the invitation to the play, where Dorian’s chosen one must play the role of Juliet. However, absorbed in bright hopes for the real happiness ahead of her with her beloved, Sybila that evening reluctantly, as if under duress (after all, “playing a lover is a profanation!” - she believes) pronounces the words of the role, for the first time seeing without embellishment the squalor of the scenery, the falsehood of her stage partners and the poverty of the enterprise. A resounding failure ensues, provoking the skeptical ridicule of Lord Henry, the restrained sympathy of the good-natured Basil and total collapse castles in the air of Dorian, who in despair says to Sibyl: “You killed my love!”

Having lost faith in his beautiful illusions, mixed with faith in the indissolubility of art and reality, Dorian spends a sleepless night wandering around empty London. Sibila is unable to bear his cruel confession; the next morning, preparing to send her a letter with words of reconciliation, he learns that the girl committed suicide that same evening. Friends and patrons here react to the tragic news each in their own way: Basil advises Dorian to strengthen his spirit, and Lord Henry - “not to shed tears in vain for Sybil Vane.” In an effort to console the young man, he invites him to the opera, promising to introduce him to his charming sister Lady Gwendolen. To Basil's bewilderment, Dorian accepts the invitation. And only the portrait recently given to him by the artist becomes a merciless mirror of the spiritual metamorphosis brewing in him: on the flawless face of the young greek god a hard wrinkle is indicated. Seriously concerned, Dorian removes the portrait out of sight.

And again, his helpful Mephistopheles friend, Lord Henry, helps him drown out the disturbing pangs of conscience. On the advice of the latter, he immerses himself in reading strange book newfangled French author- a psychological study about a person who decided to experience all the extremes of existence. Bewitched by her for a long time (“the heavy smell of smoking seemed to rise from her pages and intoxicate the brain”), Dorian over the next twenty years - in the narrative of the novel they fit into one chapter - “falls more and more in love with his beauty and everything with great interest observes the decomposition of his soul." As if frozen in his ideal shell, he seeks solace in the magnificent rites and rituals of foreign religions, in music, in collecting antiquities and precious stones, in narcotic potions offered in notorious dens. Drawn by hedonistic temptations, falling in love over and over again, but unable to love, he does not disdain dubious connections and suspicious acquaintances. The glory of a soulless seducer of young minds is assigned to him.

Reminding him of the destinies of fleeting chosen ones and chosen ones, broken at his whim, Basil Hallward, who had long ago severed all ties with him, but was planning to visit him before leaving for Paris, tries to bring some sense into Dorian. But in vain: in response to fair reproaches, he laughingly invites the painter to see the true face of his former idol, captured in Hallward’s portrait, gathering dust in a dark corner. The astonished Basil reveals the terrifying face of a voluptuous old man. However, the spectacle turns out to be beyond Dorian’s strength: holding the creator of the portrait responsible for his moral behavior, in a fit of uncontrollable rage he plunges a dagger into the neck of the friend of his young days. And then, calling on the help of one of his former comrades in revelry and feasting, the chemist Alan Campbell, blackmailing him with some shameful secret known only to both of them, forces him to dissolve Basil’s body in nitric acid - material evidence of the crime he committed.

Tormented by belated remorse, he again seeks oblivion in drugs. And he almost dies when, in a suspicious brothel at the very “bottom” of London, some tipsy sailor recognizes him: this is James Vane, who learned too late about his sister’s fatal fate and vowed to take revenge on her offender at all costs.

However, fate for the time being protects him from physical death. But - not from the all-seeing eye of Hallward's portrait. “This portrait is like a conscience. Yes, conscience. And we must destroy him,” comes to the conclusion of Dorian, who has survived all the temptations of the world, even more devastated and lonely than before, vainly jealous of both the purity of an innocent village girl and the dedication of his reluctant accomplice Alan Campbell, who found the strength to commit suicide, and even... the spiritual aristocracy of his friend-tempter Lord Henry, who seems alien to any moral obstacles, but incomprehensibly believes that “every crime is vulgar.”

Late at night, alone with himself in a luxurious London mansion, Dorian attacks the portrait with a knife, trying to shred and destroy it. The servants who rise to the cry discover in the room dead body an old man in a tailcoat. And a timeless portrait in its radiant grandeur.

Thus ends the novel-parable about a man for whom “at other moments, Evil was only one of the means of realizing what he considered the beauty of life.”

Today is my birthday Russian director theater and cinema, screenwriter, artistic director Moscow theater "Gogol Center" Kirill Serebrennikov, he turns 49 years old. For my creative activity he has directed more than two dozen works that have won Russian and international film awards. In 2017, he was charged with fraud, theft of 133 million rubles from budget funds allocated for the development of the project contemporary art"Platform". The director does not admit his guilt and has been under house arrest for a year. Despite this last film“Summer” was released in June this year and was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. Forbes collected his statements about his career as a director, modern theater and cinema.

In my youth, I was not faced with the task of going anywhere, including Moscow, or leaving Rostov. However, I had no intention of doing theater.

At all, theater if it doesn't take the viewer out of their comfort zone is an evening wasted.

It is politicians who love to guide, point out and teach, and theater helps to look into places where you are afraid to look yourself.

I think that political cinema is not about aspects of modern politics, but about what is happening to people here and now, in Russia. It seems to me that nothing else is worth doing. Neither in the theater nor in the cinema.

Cinema is a mirror. You look and see yourself.

You can't talk about our theater. The Culture channel refuses to send cameras to our premieres, even the loudest ones. About my performance, in which, let’s say, some artist associated with Channel One is involved, they will talk about this channel without mentioning the director’s name.

If you do not want civil war, strangle this war within yourself first. This doesn't mean I love everyone, but I respect everyone. And I even have a sympathetic attitude towards scoundrels, believing that they do nasty things for which they will either be very ashamed later, or something will happen to them.

I can't watch some performances. Physiologically unbearable. I respect the people who make them, I know it’s hard work, but I can’t do it.

I don't like castings in movies.. It’s impossible to understand anything about a person from casting, because he’s stressed, I’m stressed. I look at people for a very long time, we talk about something or remain silent. Quite a painful process. I know for sure that the theater is made by a team; every position here, from the administrator at the entrance to the press attache, is very important. The wrong person - and everything will be wrong.

I’ll tell you honestly, sometimes I come to some producers and say openly: “Let me make a film or stage a play under a different name. And we'll see what happens."

It's important for me to know that I free man that the theater is not chains or a basin of concrete in which my feet stand. I want to know that I am free to leave at any time - and there is no drama, I just move on.

The need to put modern text I have it all the time. This is a kind of director's hygiene.

For myself, I cannot fully formulate - should a director today be the same figure as he was in the 20th century - an absolute dictator, or not? He, for me this is undoubtedly, is a demiurge, a creator of theater.

We talk all the time about “traditions” and “classics” in the theater, but it is quite obvious to me that, for example, there is no classical theater. Either - a living, modern mechanism, or - a theater-museum.

Culture is a habit. What still keeps Russia a theatrical power despite the complete crisis of the theater? The power of habit. We are used to the fact that the theater is an important thing: even if we don’t go to it, it should be there.

There is a Ministry of Culture, there is no Ministry of Culture - no Ministry of Culture will prohibit staging a play if you really want to stage it. You don't need anything for the performance. A naked artist on a naked stage, as it turns out. No Ministry of Culture will force a writer not to write a book, or an artist not to paint a picture..

Theater is not about luxury and not about “earning a lot of money”, it’s about “making art”, it’s about formulating ideas, it’s about research modern man, about philosophy, about the combination of green and purple, finally. But not about money. If you want to earn money, go trade oil or go into government service.

Russian documentary director Vitaly Mansky, known for such films as “In the Rays of the Sun” and “Family,” commented to Hromadsky on the arrest of his colleague Kirill Serebrennikov. He calls this matter purely political. The authorities, Mansky believes, are giving the creative intelligentsia an understanding of how to behave on the eve of the 2018 presidential elections.

One - sit. Two - quiet

In your opinion, who and what did director Serebrennikov interfere with?

It is quite obvious that director Serebrennikov was chosen as a symbol, a sign for the entire creative class, for everyone creative people in the country. As a sign of how to behave in the country on the eve of elections, the next presidential elections for a now endless period (Russian presidential elections are scheduled for March 2018 - ed.).

Therefore, this is a clear, intelligible, formulated, so to speak, I don’t even know, not an order, but an already executed order of the state, addressed to all of us. There are no questions or surprises here in this sense.

So, this arrest didn’t surprise you?

He surprised me, naturally. You know, how when you know that a person, say, close to you, is sick and terminally ill, you, of course, always believe that he will be cured and will be healthy, happy, young. But when the day of his death comes, it, of course, shocks you.

In this sense, the process of the disease of society did not begin today. And it’s clear that when I heard in the morning that Kirill had been detained and transported from St. Petersburg to Moscow, right out of the filming process of the feature film, of course, it shocked me.

And we and our colleagues at KinoSoyuz ( public organization Russian filmmakers - ed.) made, perhaps, the harshest statement demanding the authorities. In general, KinoSoyuz never made such a tone of statements, because we were all really shocked. But the fact that this was in some sense inevitable, because the government is really putting things in order in its ranks, it builds everyone according to the “fall and push up” system, because it needs to carry out everything very clearly in March 1918, without bitch and hitch.

And if for some businessmen, military men, industrialists they choose more soft shapes explanations of how they need to act, because by definition they are already, as it were, built-in, then for the artist they chose this rather rigid, but very clear form, so to speak, of defining how to behave in the next six months.

Russian director Serebrennikov was placed under house arrest by a Moscow court (pictured is the director outside the Basmanny Court in Moscow on August 23) Photo: EPA / SERGEI ILNITSKY

“It all didn’t start with Kirill”

Serebrennikov's arrest is a precedent. On August 23, it became known that 33 people were already in defense of Serebrennikov. Will this story be able to unite the creative intelligentsia of Russia so that it might make some kind of intelligible general polyphonic statement?

Of course not. It's even somehow naive. If this, you know, had happened... But on the other hand, this could not have happened, but if it had happened in Russia in 2008, maybe - yes. But today we live in a country where society is already divided, where there is already a majority that has sworn allegiance to the authorities, sworn allegiance in all its manifestations, starting with Crimea and ending with everything else.

Has already huge army artists who have integrated themselves, who are already somewhat comfortable in this new world order of theirs. But those who still resist, who are still able to show some kind of independent point of view, will come for them too.

This whole process proceeds absolutely clearly, consistently, measuredly, the scenario of these actions is clearly spelled out. And the authorities do not betray him. That is, it all started not with Serebrennikov, not with Kirill. We have two unions, if we talk about cinema, two film unions, two film awards - amazingly In small cinema, there are fundamentally different prizes - and so on and so forth.

Therefore, society is no longer consolidated. Maybe it will consolidate when other times come, when this power leaves, but this wormhole of a different ideology, a different outlook on life, I wanted to say another meanness, but, you know, a position is not always meanness, but it will remain in people .

It turns out, in essence, for Russian citizen there are three scenarios: the first is to fit in, the second is to sit and wait for them to come for you; third - sit and wait, be sure that they won’t come for you, because you haven’t done anything wrong, but still sit and wait?

No no! Look, if you sit and wait, and you know that you haven't done anything wrong, you've already built in. Therefore, we immediately remove one scenario. There are two left - to fit in and not to fit in. But if you don’t fit in, then you can’t stand still, you have to protect yourself and somehow build your life. That is, if you bright man, and not integrated, then you simply will not be able to do business, creativity, or anything.

After all, in principle, what is Serebrennikov’s theater “Gogol Center”, or what are other institutions that we prayed for, like such islands common sense and some kind of freedom? It was an illusion that in the country, yes, this is the general line, but there is a space where you can be, well, feel like you are in some more or less free community.

Now they have begun to destroy these spaces. And yet, as the head of Artdocfest, I know this process very well, not from the outside, but from the inside, because in the same way the state is destroying Artdocfest. Similar. Well, maybe less radically - no one is imprisoning me - but I’m talking to you not from Moscow, but from Riga. Try to put me in jail again.

Vitaly Mansky at Artdocfest in Moscow. Photo: Facebook Vitaly Mansky

Quiet innovators

I'll quote what you said the other day. You wrote that “this arrest cancels the fragile balance of the social contract between the intelligentsia and the authorities, these actions undermine faith in the possibility of dialogue.” What was the dialogue, exactly?

In reasonable compromises. Let's take a look: Kirill Serebrennikov - he made bright, voluminous, philosophical, innovative theater productions and films. But, so to speak, he did not show himself as a rally leader, he was not public figure. So I will say it carefully. That is, he did not make statements, he did not speak... I don’t remember him speaking in support of (Oleg) Sentsov, for example, or anything else.

He found a certain balance in the name of the fact that he was engaged in a very important, vital space for Russia, in the name of this creative freedom in his small space of his theater and his cinema. For the sake of this, perhaps - and I know that he is a fairly convinced, bright and formed person - he denied himself some other manifestations of such a more civil plan.

And this was, it seems to me, a certain compromise. Now this compromise is meaningless, because it doesn’t matter whether you perform or not, they will still come for you if you are not with them. That's all.

Integrate or leave

It turns out that, whatever one may say, this creative freedom or the choice to be free inside, to be creative while you are allowed, until they come for you, is to some extent self-deception? Because you see, they still came. Those who understand that they can also come for them must draw some conclusions for themselves. What conclusions will these people draw for themselves, do you think?

I think that most of will conclude that life comfort, or even its illusion, is more important, the illusion of comfort, and will still be built in even more, because this is what this whole action is aimed at.

Well, some people will formulate their disagreement more clearly, which means dooming themselves to even more difficult situation their theaters, their projects, their films, their whatever institutions they support. And probably, in some sense, the outflow of people from Russia will increase.

But when I talk about increase, you need to understand that, in principle, there are not so many bright people in any state. We're not talking about tens of thousands. But sometimes the departure of one person causes greater damage.

Of course, everyone today makes a decision for themselves, I think unconsciously, and some consciously, about how they will live in the future. Because the authorities tried to make sure that Serebrennikov’s case was indicative, so it became indicative for many, many people.

Kirill Serebrennikov at the Gogol Center. Photo: Facebook Kirill Serebrennikov

How will this story end for Serebrennikov himself?

First of all, this is a severe blow to a person, to young man. I don’t know how I could withstand such a blow if they canceled me two days before the premiere in Bolshoi Theater a production that I had been nurturing for a long time and made with such difficulty.

Then they imprison all my producers, then they yank me out film set, and it is clear that when I am placed under house arrest, I cannot run the theater that I created.

This is a huge blow. And of course, I wish Kirill strength, but I don’t know how to withstand such a blow. And something tells me that... I won’t even say it, because the word is material.

And besides verbal support, what else can those people who are ready to help Serebrennikov do to ensure that help is provided?

Change power in the country.

For several days now, the Russian public has been vigorously discussing the words famous actor Alexey Serebryakov, what he said in an interview with a popular video blogger Yuri Dudu February 20th. When they discussed the main character in Andrei Zvyagintsev’s film “Leviathan,” played by Serebryakov, Alexey stated in particular: “Nicholas surrendered and lost to the authorities because he is Russian. The American takes it and does it, because the psychology there is different - the psychology of success, the psychology of a career, the psychology of the fact that I have the right, I have freedoms, I am free to express my will, I know what I am doing, I am responsible for my life." .

The actor admitted that before the interview he gave a bribe to a traffic police officer: “I violated it a little. I didn’t want to waste time, but he really wanted this bribe. And I thought: “Maybe he has three children, who knows.”

Statement by 53-year-old Serebryakov, a truly popular actor (starred in the films “The Ninth Company”, “Cargo 200”, “ Inhabited island"," "Pyramid", "How Vitka Chesnok took Lekha Shtyr to the nursing home", the British TV series "McMafia") caused an incredible sensation. It looks like Soviet times, when individual cultural figures, scientists, and human rights activists were subjected to mass persecution in the press. Everyone considers it their duty to speak out.

For example, singer Katya Lel, which the Russians managed to forget about. In her opinion, arrogance and rudeness - “this is not about us.” “The Russian people are precisely compassionate, with a deep soul, which is what has always distinguished them.”“, the singer summed up.

Katya Lel

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called Serebryakov “an enemy of Russia” and compared him to Pavel Smerdyakov, a character in Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov.” The actor played this role in the series of the same name.

People's Artist of Russia Alexander Pankratov-Cherny I also disagreed with my colleague’s words. “You know, you even go into a village and there is amazing intelligence in the people. I meet Cossacks in the Krasnodar region, and, you know, they have some kind of intelligence that comes from nature. I believe that it is inherent in nature - to be a boor or not to be,”- said Pankratov-Cherny.

Alexander Pankratov-Cherny

Director Vladimir Bortko and completely doubted the mental abilities of Alexei Serebryakov. “I shot him in two films, both were extremely patriotic. He didn't say anything like that then. I don’t know what happened to him now. National idea Russia - to love your Motherland", Bortko emphasized.

Vladimir Bortko

“Serebryakov is very good artist, By the way. but that doesn't mean he clever man. If he does not want to love his Motherland, then he should not have worked here and received money. This is not very logical and mean-spirited on his part. He can remain where strength, arrogance and rudeness reign,”- Bortko said.

Head of the Mosfilm film concern, film director Karen Shakhnazarov considered Serebryakov’s opinion about Russia ugly and dishonest. According to him, such attacks will help him get “some advantages” in Canada, where Serebryakov now lives. At the same time, Shakhnazarov doubted the actor’s demand in the USA, Canada or other countries.

Karen Shakhnazarov

Director Andrei Konchalovsky also commented on Serebryakov’s statement. He noted that the actor’s words are just “one in a million opinions.” “To be honest, I have nothing but sympathy for Alyosha. I hope that he will continue to act in Russia in order to live, because hardly anyone needs him there.”, said Konchalovsky.

Andrey Konchalovsky

People's Artist of Russia, director Nikolai Dostal stated: “I love this artist! He starred in “Penal Battalion” for me. This is one of his best roles. So I don't want to comment. I heard this statement, but I don’t want to judge or anything else... He is my comrade and friend.”

Nikolay Dostal

Unexpectedly expressed his opinion and was once popular actor Alexey Panin. “Look at the faces of the people, the faces they walk down the street with... A country of boors. When you walk into a store in Europe, people smile at you. In Moscow they smile too, only at Azbuka Vkusa, because it’s a richer store, but at Pyaterochka no one smiles,”- said Panin.

Alexey Panin

In his opinion, the inhabitants of Russia do not respect each other, and are ready to destroy everyone who is richer, more successful or more beautiful, demonstrating their “redneck power”. Panin expressed regret that he did not emigrate from Russia when he had money. “You have to love this country from a distance, come to ski, and then take the kids and get out of here. If my financial situation had been the same as it was ten years ago, I would have gathered my mother, daughter, everyone, and I would not have set foot in this country for a long time. I would go to hell, to hell, just to get out of this country.”, he noted. Panin added that Russia is a homophobic country, people in it are evil, and it is impossible to live in it.

Producer Fedor Popov(“How Vitka Chesnok took Lekha Shtyr to the nursing home”) supported Serebryakov: “Alexey Serebryakov has achieved success in his profession, he is a real citizen. Yes, he's harsh, but I know a lot famous people, constituting the color of the nation, which are also sharp. Why should he turn a blind eye? He, I repeat, is a citizen, he is touched by this, he has children, a family, he takes care of them first of all. This is very worthy of a man. I was struck by the fact that his children are adopted, he adopted two boys - I didn’t know about this, it’s touching. He is an actor, he has a delicate emotional constitution, he lets everything pass through him. I may not agree with something, but I understand him very much.”

Producer Fedor Popov

Comedian Efim Shifrin On his Facebook page he came out in defense of Serebryakov: “Lesha Serebryakov is the mind, honor and conscience of our sometimes brainless, dishonest and rather unscrupulous time. The truth can be angular, especially when fatigue and impatience dictate harsh and hurtful language. But he also no longer needs to draw ovals at an age when it is shameful to dissemble or lie.”

Efim Shifrin

Satirist Viktor Shenderovich caustically commented on the campaign against Serebryakov. He also remembered director Kirill Serebrennikov, who has been under house arrest for six months on a trumped-up charge of stealing budget money.

“Russia today has two mortal enemies - Serebrennikov and Serebryakov. One stole all the money allocated for culture, and only the very bottom was left, for a couple of Mikhalkovs and one Medinsky, and the other insulted us so deeply that the State Duma fainted from indignation by the entire payroll, and Russia now lies defenseless, whoever Want. There is only hope for Putin, but he is on the ballot. I don’t even know what to do",” the satirist wrote on his Facebook page.

Victor Shenderovich

The most interesting thing is that both critics and supporters of Alexei Serebryakov completely forgot about another harsh statement by the actor in the same interview. When Yuri Dud asked what the actor disliked most about Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexey replied: “ Two “Bs” - lies and theft... endless.” “Our vision of the world with him is so incompatible, so unconnected that... no matter what I tell him, it will not change anything in him and will not lead to anything.”“, Serebryakov emphasized.

Alexey Serebryakov in the film "Leviathan"

On February 22, the actor did not go back on his words. " I said everything I said. If I need to negotiate something, I will contact Mr. Dudu and negotiate with him“, Serebryakov emphasized.