Meduza will release a joint book by director Andrei Zvyagintsev and film critic Anton Dolin. It’s called “AZ I Am” and it talks about what makes a movietranslated

After almost a ten-year break, serious illness and forced departure from Russia, director Andrei Zvyagintsev returned to cinema with the film “Minotaur” and immediately received the Grand Prix of the 79th Cannes Festival, the fourth Cannes award in his career.

The book “AZ Am,” which will be published very soon by the Meduza publishing house, tells not only about the director’s triumphant return, but also about what cinema is made of in general. It is written based on conversations between Anton Dolin and Andrey Zvyagintsev, many of which were recorded in the summer of 2026 in Jurmala. The book also includes analyzes of all six of the director’s full-length films: three of them (about Helen, Leviathan and Lovelessness) Dolin wrote for the Art of Cinema, while other texts (about Return, Exile and Minotaur) are published for the first time.

This is how Anton Dolin himself speaks about the book: I decided to do it many years ago, but the cumulative effect led to its appearance only now. An amazing story arc - from an induced coma and forced separation from home to the triumphant Grand Prix in Cannes - created ideal conditions for summing up the preliminary results. <…> There are two names on the cover. The book was written in full collaboration...