Andrey Zvyagintsev is back with Minotaur, and the first trailer for the acclaimed filmmaker’s latest drama has arrived, offering a tense first look at a story where marital betrayal, personal turmoil and political upheaval collide.
The film arrives with considerable awards-season attention following its success at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it took home the prestigious Grand Prix. Zvyagintsev previously earned international acclaim for films including Leviathan and Loveless, both of which went on to receive Academy Award recognition.
Set in Russia in 2022, Minotaur centres on Gleb, a successful company director whose carefully controlled life begins to unravel from several directions at once.
The trailer introduces Gleb as he becomes increasingly suspicious that his wife is having an affair. His suspicions are soon confirmed, with the footage showing his wife involved with another man and behaving increasingly strangely around him.
What begins as a deeply personal crisis soon becomes intertwined with the rapidly changing world around him.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s mobilisation in 2022, Gleb’s growing paranoia and anger are intensified by the instability surrounding him. His professional pressures, troubled marriage and an increasingly uncertain political environment push him towards a violent confrontation.
The official synopsis describes Gleb as a man “under siege from mounting corporate pressures and an increasingly unstable world”, with the collapse of his meticulously ordered existence threatening to spiral into violence.
Zvyagintsev co-wrote the film with Simon Lyashenko. The director has explained that the real-world events surrounding Russia’s 2022 mobilisation ultimately helped shape the story, providing a particularly unsettling backdrop for Gleb’s personal collapse.
“The mass exodus of the citizens of that country, especially young men, suddenly provided the harrowing backdrop to the events of that time.”
The film stars Dmitriy Mazurov as Gleb, alongside Iris Lebedeva, Varvara Shmykova, Boris Kudrin, Yuriy Zavalnyouk, Vladimir Friedman and Mikhail Samodakhov.
Minotaur is also emerging as a potential contender in the Best International Feature Film race at the Academy Awards. Rather than representing Russia, the film has been selected for consideration by France, with the country still determining which title will ultimately become its official Oscar submission.
Following its Cannes triumph, the film also picked up the Sydney Film Prize at the 2026 Sydney Film Festival, further strengthening its position as one of the year’s major international cinema titles.
The trailer promises another intense and psychologically charged drama from Zvyagintsev, with Minotaur examining the destructive consequences of a man attempting to maintain control while everything around him begins to fall apart.
Minotaur will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before its North American theatrical release on November 20. In Australia, Palace Films has announced a Boxing Day release on December 26.
The first trailer for Minotaur is available now.
