Interview: Irina Starshenbaum – Kirill Serebrennikov’s Leto | 2018 Cannes Film Festival

Two years after premiering an overtly political film in The Student (Un Certain Regard 2016), the gifted Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov returns to the Croisette with his first Competition film entry. A chaotically shaped ode to the underground Leningrad rock scene of the 1980s, Leto is a much more cheerful oeuvre than his debut film. With a strong visual representation of a God-fearing young boy whose fundamentalist beliefs threatens the society around him, this whimsical, solemn film would not have been less palpable if it weren’t for all-encompassing performances by the likes of Irina Starshenbaum; who takes on a real life charmer in Natasha and brings a great deal of effervescent energy to the character.

Not unlike Jafar Panahi, Serebrennikov had been detained by the Russian government and was banned from traveling to Cannes, but in his place, representing Leto, I had the chance to speak to Starshenbaum and found out more about how she viewed the character, working with Serebrennikov, and how she prepared herself for the role.