Kirill Serebrennikov is making a film with Ben Whishaw about Limonov

The film is based on the bestselling book Limonov by Emmanuel Carrera and tells about the American adventures of the poet who grew up in Kharkov, his return to post-perestroika RUSSIA, the founding of the National Bolshevik Party and his prison term. The role of Limonov was played by actor Ben Whishaw ("No Time to Die", "Perfumer. The Story of a Murderer", "It Will Hurt").

“The role of Eddie required a brilliant artist, and Ben fits like no other. In addition to reading all of his books and watching all of the interviews, he approached his image by nature. Not from the HEAD, but from the depths, from the very inside. Like a dog smell. It's incredible to watch him turn into Eddie in front of the camera. Only great actors are capable of this,” said Kirill Serebrennikov. He explained the decision to make a film about a Soviet-Russian writer in English by the fact that he expects to capture a wide audience.

Ben Whishaw, in an interview about the film, said that his transformation through the various stages of Limonov's life was "one of the greatest pleasures". “He himself seemed to be constantly changing - as if he had lived seven completely different lives. I studied him as best I could, although I tried not to imitate him. Make-up artist Masha and plastic make-up artist Alexei helped me a lot, as well as Tatyana, a costume designer. We all worked very hard to bring everything to life.”

Limonov's wife - Elena Shchapova - was played by Victoria Miroshnichenko ("Dylda"). The DIRECTOR will present a promotional video at Cannes on May 17, according to Variety.

The script for Limonov was written by Pavel Pawlikovsky (Cold War), Ben Hopkins (Epic) and Serebrennikov. The film needs to be completed because in the midst of filming in Moscow, where the Fifth Avenue set was built, the director was faced with a Seventh Studio criminal case. Serebrennikov now plans to shoot the New York scenes in Europe in July in order to present the film at festivals in the spring of 2023.

“We managed to shoot half of the film. Buyers will see footage shot in Russia. They show the beginning of Eddie's life and the last part of the period that the film is about, until about 2004. An American story set in the 1980s will be filmed in Europe,” Serebrennikov explained. - Of course, this is pastiche, not a documentary narrative. After all, this is a crazy biography of one of the most influential and controversial Russian heroes. We resort to metaphors, pauses and other poetic devices to reveal our version of his tumultuous life."

The producers of the picture named its budget - $ 10.5 million, this is the highest-budget project in Serebrennikov's career.