Film drama "Limonov" wins Grand Prize at "Bluelibri" in Sofia

The 138-minute Italian-French-Spanish biographical drama Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie (2024) has won the Grand Prize for Masterful Literary Adaptation at the CineLibri international feature film competition in Sofia. The film is an adaptation of French author Emmanuele Carrere's novelised biography of radical Soviet poet and political dissident Eduard Limonov.

Director Kirill Serebrennikov's film takes us through the second half of the 20th century to tell the scandalous story of Eduard Limonov (1943-2020), the poet who became a bum in New York, a sensation in France and a political anti-hero in Russia.

The winner was announced by the jury president, actress Maria Bakalova.  "It was a difficult choice, but we all agree that the adaptation of Emmanuel Carrer's biographical novel should win this year's prize," said Bakalova. "The jury appreciated Ben Whishaw's highly organic and charismatic performance and the evocative contemporary cinematography," she added.