A year in hospital and 90% lung damage: how Andrey Zvyagintsev came back from Covid to Cannes

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, A year in hospital and 90% lung damage: how Andrey Zvyagintsev came back from Covid to Cannes, Cannes film festival: The great Russian director of Leviathan, Loveless and The Return has overcome extraordinary obstacles to present his first film in nine years His films have been hailed as damning allegories of the Russian population’s apathy in the face of state oppression. Yet when director Andrey Zvyagintsev learned of his country’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he too was paralysed, and literally so. A severe infection with Covid-19 had left the film-maker stranded at a clinic in Hanover, Germany, struggling to breathe with 90% lung damage and unable to move or feel his limbs for several months. “It was in this state that I learned of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine,” he said in a rare recent interview. “It was a shock; I felt immense pain and deep despair.” In all, he spent 11 months in assorted hospitals. Continue reading…

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-15T13:22:01+00:00.

What to watch

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Source

Primary source: A year in hospital and 90% lung damage: how Andrey Zvyagintsev came back from Covid to Cannes via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.