LETO
In this electric punk rock opus out of Cannes, an outsider musician submerges himself in Leningrad’s early-80s underground scene and finds love as he revolutionizes rock music.
Currently serving house arrest in Russia, persona non grata filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov (THE STUDENT) crafts his own subversive form of rebellion in this black & white, nostalgic, and gritty ode to the punk rockers of Soviet-Russia. A fateful meeting between Mike (Roman Bilyk), local punk royalty and member of Zoopark, and Viktor (Teo Yoo), real-life member of the influential duo Kino, sparks a summer to remember filled with cathartic jams, paranoid parties, chain smoking, drinking, and love. All under the watchful eye of a repressive regime, Mike and Viktor lead a gang of misfits drooling over smuggled Western records including the likes of iconoclast Iggy Pop. But as Viktor becomes more immersed in the scene writing celebrated anthems for the unheard, he catches the eye of Mike’s wife Natasha (Irina Starshenbaum), threatening the bond between the two artists. Capturing the fleeting freedom felt by those revolting against the norm in Leningrad, Serebrennikov packs this alt-musical with fantastical renditions of works by the Talking Heads and David Bowie that portrays an uncertain time when all that mattered was the music and how loud it was played.
CAST: Teo Yoo, Irina Starshenbaum, Roma Bilyk
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