Russia labels acclaimed filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev a 'foreign agent'

FILE PHOTO: Director Andrey Zvyagintsev, Grand Prix award winner for the film \"Minotaur\" (Minotaure), poses during a photocall after the closing ceremony of the 79th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 23, 2026. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

MOSCOW, Sept 18 - Acclaimed Russian film director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who has repeatedly criticised Moscow's war in Ukraine, was designated on Friday as a "foreign agent", state news agency TASS said.

Russia has applied the label, which has connotations of espionage, to numerous people, including public figures, who it deems to be engaging in anti-Russian activity with support from abroad.

Zvyagintsev won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival this year for "Minotaur", a film depicting a Russian businessman who is forced to decide which of his employees should be mobilised to go and fight in Ukraine.

"Millions of people on both sides of the front line dream of only one thing: for the massacres to stop," Zvyagintsev said in his acceptance speech, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the only person capable of ending the war.

Critics described "Minotaur" as one of Zvyagintsev's most openly critical commentaries on Russia's political and moral condition.

The director, who has lived outside Russia since the COVID pandemic, is known for a series of other films including "The Return", "The Banishment" and "Leviathan", a bleak portrayal of life in rural Russia.

People listed as foreign agents are subjected to onerous bureaucratic requirements and restrictions on their income in Russia.

They have to warn in capital letters on everything they publish, including on social media, that the content was produced by a foreign agent.

Among other cultural figures to be labelled in this way are writer Boris Akunin and rock musician Boris Grebenshchikov. REUTERS