CIFF Feature UCHENIK web 2

The Student

((M)uchenik)

Year 2016
Runtime 118 mins
Language Russian
Subtitles English

Venya (Pyotr Skvortsov) is a lonely teenager who doesn’t fit in school and is always on the outside. Gradually, he turns towards the Bible and uses quotes from the religious book to question everything around him in school – from bikinis worn by the girls at swimming classes, to the relevance of sex education and the theory of evolution. His ideas seem harmless at first but slowly they start to influence others around him as he manages to turn the whole system upside down. Caught in the middle of all this is Elena (Victoria Isakova), a biology teacher, who sees through Venya but is unable to garner enough support to change their course.

Based on Marius von Mayenburg's play "Martyr", Kirill Serebrennikov’s THE STUDENT is a breathtaking tour de force that depicts how fundamentalist views can take hold and spread like fire. The film is localized to a Russian school but its ideas about conflicting ideologies are universal, making it one of the most relevant films of the year.

Awards
Cannes Film Festival, François Chalais Award
Festivals
Cannes, Munich Film Festival, Biografilm Festival
Director
Kirill Serebrennikov
Producer
Ilya Stewart, Diana Safarova, Yury Kozyrev Kozyrev, Murad Osmann, Sergey Shtern, Svetlana Ustinova, Ilya Dzhincharadze, Katerina Komolova, Cosimo Fin
Screenwriter
Kirill Serebrennikov, Marius Von Mayenburg
Cinematographer
Vladislav Opelyants
Editor
Yury Karikh
Music
Ilya Demutsky
Cast
Petr Skvortsov, Viktoriy Isakova, Yuliya Aug, Aleksandr Gorchilin, Svetlana Bragarnik, Anton Vasiliev, Aleksandra Revenko, Nikolai Roschi
Sound
Boris Voit