A place where dreams come true. For Iris Lebedeva, that would be the Cannes Film Festival. An actress from Russia, Iris has always been drawn to acting, something that she doesn’t just do but considers a big part of how she experiences life. A very curious person always fascinated by human nature. How people make choices. How they love. How they lose. How they change. Perhaps that’s why acting means so much to her. Through playing different characters, Iris can explore lives she would never have the chance to live herself. She says, “It makes me wonder what if my life had gone another way?” Iris has acted for many years through film and theatre, trying to find her place in the arts. But everything changed after her new film Minotaur premiered at Cannes. A domestic couple drama on the brink of collapse, set in the backdrop of the Russo-Ukraine war that marks a 9-year return for director Andrey Zvyagintsev. A dream collaboration for Iris, yet feels fated. As if everything is only just beginning for her, following the huge success of her film at Cannes, where it would go on to win the prestigious Grand Prix prize.
Reminiscing about the past, Iris takes me back to her first time in Cannes. Applying for an accreditation with her friend but was afraid, thinking it to be impossible, like anyone would, only to be accepted to her surprise. When she arrived, she was immediately fascinated by the city. A place full of people who genuinely loved cinema. It was only then that she started dreaming that she would one day return to Cannes with her own movie. Describing her first trip as a powerful experience, “My Cannes story is about going from an observer to becoming a participant. My first red carpet in Cannes wasn’t for my own film. I was there as a spectator. I remember attending a premiere at the Lumière Theatre and being deeply moved by the atmosphere in the room. When the film ended, and people applauded the team, I almost started crying.” While reflecting on her memories, Iris saw how these people, even famous artists, lived through one of the most important moments of their lives. The cameras were on them, people were applauding and she quickly came to a realisation: “One day I would love to know what this feels like myself. Not to watch it from the outside, but to be inside at this moment.” Years later, Iris became a participant herself with Minotaur. A dream she made come true.
Iris kept telling herself to remember this moment: “What I will remember forever is the premiere itself. There were so many friends and people I know from the industry in the Lumière Theatre; I could catch their eyes before the film started and then again after it ended. I don’t think anything will ever be stronger than this first Cannes premiere with my own film.” But for Iris, the moment that changed the course of her life wasn’t the red carpet. It was the moment Andrey chose her to play Galina. Because at that moment, there were still two possible realities. Either this story would happen, or it wouldn’t happen at all. Everything that came afterwards, Cannes, the premiere, the closing ceremony, the release- all these incredible emotions only became possible because of that one decision. To Iris, what is happening now is an adventure that she’s trying to experience and remember.
The Russian actress didn’t dream about becoming one when she was a child like many others did. She was always confused when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She never felt excited about any particular profession. The idea of spending her whole life doing something that didn’t bring her joy frightened her. Soon after, Iris discovered acting and something had changed in her. Suddenly, she became interested in life itself: “I was excited to wake up in the morning. I loved being around people, rehearsing, creating things together and constantly discovering something new.” Her dream came true after this festival so I wondered what her dream would be now. Iris never sought fame, though. It was always about the work that she wanted to be a part of. Working with a director like Andrey, with this script and team, “Minotaur was exactly the kind of project I had always dreamed about.” She remembers walking into the room during the Minotaur casting process and immediately feeling that these were the people she wanted to create something with. She felt that she had found her people. Posing it as a difficult question when people ask her what her dream is now, because her biggest dream has already come true. Working with Andrey Zvyagintsev on a project like Minotaur was one of those dreams. Iris doesn’t feel that she needs to immediately invent a bigger dream. She would simply like to continue this path. Hoping this project and Cannes will open new doors for her, but even if they don’t, nobody can take this experience away from her.
On the evening of the Minotaur premiere, Iris wore a custom black and white Rasario dress, with a striking train and tailored wings that almost opened 180 degrees like a swan. Describing the look as a big part of her journey. Rasario had actually contacted Iris even before the official Cannes announcement. Asking if she was going to Cannes as they wanted to dress her. At first, the dress was completely white. But Rasario’s team had suggested changing it to black and white because they felt it would work better for the red carpet premiere. It was difficult for Iris to let go of that first look because, surrounded by men in black tuxedos, a white dress would look like a giant moth on the red carpet. I described the color white as angels to her surprise: “I love that people see different things in it. Someone sees a swan, a ghost, or an angel. I love that people create their own meanings around it.” Swan is a funny symbol because Iris’s surname, Lebedeva, comes from the Russian word for swan. But what makes this story special is that everything was created remotely. Iris was in Dubai while Rasario was somewhere else, and there wasn’t a single fitting. The team created the dress using her measurements and sent instructions explaining how to wear it, how to attach the train, and how to sit in it. She received it just one day before her flight and it fit perfectly. The dress was created thanks to the craftsmanship, attention to detail, and mutual trust between Iris and Rasario designer Rasida Lakoba. This trust now extends to Iris and Andrey through Minotaur.
It’s been 9 years since Zvyagintsev made a film in 2017. Iris had joined the casting process late, closer to the end. When she recorded the self-tapes, she only had the scenes with dialogue, without any context. After she sent them, the casting director sent her the full script and said, “Please read it first. If nothing makes you uncomfortable, we’re ready to invite you to Riga (capital of Latvia) for in-person auditions.” She couldn’t wait to get home and be alone to read it. During those few hours she kept asking herself, “What could possibly be in this script that would make me say no to such an opportunity? Then I sat down and read it in one breath. When I read the script, I didn’t feel that it was asking me to deliver a political message. What I connected with most was a human story placed within a very specific historical moment. It leaves the audience free to decide how they feel about it. It doesn’t tell the audience what to think.” She then arrived in Riga for the auditions and spent a long time talking with Zvyagintsev and the writer Simon Liashenko. She walked out after the first day completely overwhelmed by energy, and there was nothing she wanted more than to become part of what they were creating together. From the moment Iris was cast as Galina until the end of filming, she was living through one of the happiest and most exciting periods of her life.
During those months of shooting, Iris was surrounded by people who were completely devoted to what they were creating. Eventually she started vibrating at the same frequency too. But Iris recognises her rare privilege. Spending three months living in Riga, for a while, they could separate themselves from everyday life, routines and family to dedicate all of their attention to this one film. As for Dmitriy, their dynamic was nothing short of interesting. He had his own process and stayed inside his own world. Even though Iris and Dmitriy often shared one room in the house between takes and always treated each other with warmth and respect, she still couldn’t convince him to go for a coffee. Just like their characters, they shared different views on the reasons behind the problems in their relationship and what had caused them. From the very first auditions, they constantly argued about it, which amused Andrey and Simon a lot. In fact, all of this helped them to create a special atmosphere between Gleb and Galina.
“It allows me to explore lives I will never have the chance to live myself.”
Minotaur explores a family at their wits’ end during the Russian war. There’s a sense of mortality always lingering throughout the film. For Galina, that finality brings urgency and renewed purpose to Iris when telling an important story like this. She says, “Life is really fragile. It keeps asking us questions, and we don’t always have answers. We like to think we’re in control, but very often we’re not. We never know what life will ask of us next or how much time we have.” Maybe that’s why Iris tries not to take life for granted. Unfortunately, life isn’t a computer game. You don’t get the chance to save one version of your life and start again. Time keeps moving, whether we’re ready or not. It’s probably the one thing we can never stop. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Iris loves acting so much: “It allows me to explore lives I will never have the chance to live myself.”
In Minotaur, Iris plays Galina, an unhappy wife dissatisfied with her husband’s lack of attention and care for her, as she feels trapped at home raising their son alone. She then decides to look for that happiness elsewhere, becoming unfaithful in the process with a young photographer who has taken an interest in her. It’s not common for characters like her to have much sympathy from the audience. It is a natural reaction to cheating. But when Gleb is not communicating with Galina, things go out of control, and that control then leaves the family home. Iris can’t imagine not feeling sympathy for her: “I don’t judge Galina. I completely understand her and how she could have arrived at that point. When I was working on her, I wasn’t thinking about unfaithfulness first. The story started much earlier and the problem wasn’t that she met Anton. It was long before that, she and Gleb had stopped seeing and talking to each other.” Iris can imagine one possible story. Maybe Galina was very young when they met. They fell in love, started a family, and had a child. Maybe one day Gleb said, “You don’t have to work. I’ll take care of everything. Stay with our son. That’s more important.” She put her own life on hold for many years, and after a long time it felt impossible to start again. She slowly became completely dependent on the life they had built together. It’s not about comfort or their standard of living. It’s about losing the feeling that your own life also belongs to you. Iris didn’t think she was looking for another man. She had already accepted that this was simply her life. Then someone appears who doesn’t see her as a function inside the family, but as a person. As a woman. Iris acknowledges this common experience for women, “I think every woman, no matter how old she is, wants to feel seen. We want to feel interesting, attractive and alive. I don’t think that ever disappears. This relationship is about feeling alive again, remembering a part of yourself that you thought had disappeared and slowly reconnecting with your own strength.”
In Galina’s case, it’s almost as if she remembers who she was before she lost herself in the life she had built around everyone else. As an actress, this conundrum fascinated Iris to explore these two completely different relationships. For Iris, a happy couple is two people helping each other become the people they dream of becoming. Love and genuine curiosity about each other can keep growing through the years. If both people keep choosing each other through difficult times, happy times, crises, successes…through everything that life brings, “I think it’s worth working on yourself for that.”
In Minotaur, we follow Gleb’s perspective and see Galina from the outside. When people watch films, they tend to empathise most with the protagonist. But in Andrey’s films, he doesn’t position the main character as a hero or someone to root for. Some parts of Gleb are decent but there’s parts of him that are like a monster: the way he treats his wife, the way he is around with his son. He’s often absent and corrupted by his own power, both at work and at home. But Iris disagreed and doesn’t see Gleb as a monster. He’s an ordinary man who doesn’t wake up every morning wanting to become a worse person. Except life doesn’t work that way, “One decision leads to another, and little by little, you can become someone you never imagined you could become. Could he have acted differently? I think so. I think there is almost always another choice before things reach the point of violence, before someone loses their life. In the end, we see two people who slowly find themselves in a place neither of them probably imagined they would ever reach.”
Time has passed since the honeymoon period of Cannes. But this film is so important and explores the unrest going on in everyone’s homes, while acknowledging that our larger society is constantly at odds in this fractured world. As a Russian, Iris knows how easy it is for people to put labels on others. But to her, human beings are much more complicated. Most people simply want to live their lives, love the people who they care about and feel safe. She believes, “I’m not sure one film can change the world. But maybe it can start a dialogue. For me, art is a space for dialogue. Not only between people, but also with ourselves.” Maybe someone leaves the cinema asking themselves a question they had never asked before. That’s what acting and filmmaking is all about. To stay curious and engage with the world around you. Minotaur in that sense, is not just a dream come true for Iris, but a reality we live that asks us to have these difficult conversations or risk becoming monsters in the process.
Credits:
Words by Zakariya Ahmed
Portrait:
Photography by Mark de Paola @depaolapictures
Talent Iris Lebedeva @iris_iv
Hair and Makeup Irina Zayonchkovskaia @irishkazay
Style Margarita Kaplieva @self_producer
PR @ogonagency
Produced by Sage Backstrom at dePAOLA Pictures
Portrait with cigar
Photography by Dmitry Shuklin @shoodima
Talent Iris Lebedeva @iris_iv
Hair and Makeup Irina Zayonchkovskaia @irishkazay
Style Margarita Kaplieva @self_producer
PR @ogonagency
Rasario dress Photos:
Photography by Tatuna Skriabina @tatunaskryabina
Talent Iris Lebedeva @iris_iv
Dress Rasario @rasario by @rasida_lakoba
Style Margarita Kaplieva @self_producer
Jewelry @Messika
Hair artist Pierre Saint Sever @pierresaintsever
Makeup Christina Lutz @christina__lutz for @diorbeauty
PR @ogonagency
