The Student

Veniamin, a teenager who lives in Baltic Russia is not like others in his age group. He plunges into a frenzied reading of the Bible and rejects the teachings what he has been taught, finds it outrageous that girls wear bikinis instead of a one-piece suit, and challenges the theory of evolution... And instead of turning the other cheek as would suggest the holy book, he raises his angry fist. Kirill Serebrennikov offers us here a disturbing work with caustic humor. His splendid screenplay made with visual audacity and choreographed frames give urgency to this breathtaking and horryfying story. The detailed work on colors fill his narrative with life, and the actors all make a perfect and convincingly infernal dive into obscurantism. Religious fundamentalism is indeed at the heart of this original, chilling and disturbingly up to date film. One of the essential discoveries of the Un Certain Regard section of the last Cannes Festival.

Flagey, Brussels Film Festival