Kirill Serebrennikov

Kirill Semyonovich Serebrennikov Russian Кирилл Семёнович Серебренников born 7 September 1969 RostovonDon is a Russian stage and film director and theatre designer Since 2012 he has been the artistic director of the Gogol Center in Moscow He has been described as one of Russias leading theatre directors Serebrennikov was born in RostovonDon Russian SFSR to a Jewish father and a Ukrainian mother Having graduated from Rostov State University with majors in physics in 1992 Serebrennikov had no formal theatre education prior to his stage director debut in 1994 He went on directing music videos and commercials In 2001 he staged his first production in Moscow Serebrennikov has staged drama productions in Moscow Chekhov Theatre Latvian National Theatre Theatre of Nations He has been active in opera staging productions for the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre in Russia where he has also been a stage director and a designer for a ballet Komische Oper Berlin and Stuttgart Opera in Germany Serebrennikov is one of the artistic directors of Territory Festival in Moscow Since 2008 he is a professor of the Moscow Art Theatre School where he has a class of actors and directors His films have been screened at Cannes Film Festival Locarno Film Festival Rome Film Festival and the Warsaw International Film Festival where his film Yuris Day received the Grand Prix In 2012 he was appointed artistic director of The Gogol Center On 23 May 2017 Serebrennikovs apartment and the Gogol Center facilities were raided by law enforcement agencies in connection with an alleged embezzlement at the Seventh Studio a nonprofit organization established by Serebrennikov While no charges against Serebrennikov have been filed some of Russias most prominent cultural figures saw the publicized raid of his apartment as a political gesture discouraging Serebrennikov and others from criticizing the government Serebrennikov had criticised the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and has spoken out in support of Russias LGBT community On 22 August 2017 Serebrennikov was detained by the Investigative Committee of Russia suspected of masterminding a fraud scheme involving a state subsidy the Seventh Studio received from the government of Russia from 2011 to 2014 In a verdict condemned by the Human Rights Watch Serebrennikov was convicted in June 2020 fined and given a suspended sentence Despite being in a supposed house arrest in Russia Serebrennikov arrived to Hamburg in January 2022