We sat down with director Kantemir Balagov at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival following the premiere of his sophomore film Beanpole in Un Certain Regard. The director speaks of the process of re-creating post-WWII Leningrad as well as the process of casting unknown lead roles. Although Balagov didn’t concoct his film as a direct homage, we discussed noted influences on the construction of the narrative, including Aleksey German and Larisa Shepitko. While Balagov doesn’t provide any exact details of future projects, he plans on his next film being a contemporary narrative after his two period pieces, which includes his 1999 set debut Closeness (Tesnota). Here is our interview:Â
