Media, international cultural community and human rights activists unanimously considered the case politically motivated and fabricated because Serebrennikov was known for his liberal and LGBT-friendly stances that opposes Russian official conservative positions.
His father, Semyon Mikhailovich Serebrennikov[a] was a surgeon, while his mother, Iryna Oleksandrivna Lytvyn[b] was a teacher of Russian language and literature.
[2] Kirill’s grandfather Alexander Ivanovich Litvin[c][d] was a film director and screenwriter, he worked at Moldova-Film in (1953–1972) and was titled an Honored Culture Worker of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
He studied at the math school, in the 8th grade he established his own student theater and staged a play called ‘Shadow’.
In 2009 Serebrennikov launched the Platforma art incubator, a platform that supported theatre projects around Russia.
[26][27] On 23 May 2017, Serebrennikov's apartment and the Gogol Center facilities were raided by law enforcement agents in connection with an alleged embezzlement at the Seventh Studio.
[29] Serebrennikov had criticised the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and has spoken out in support of Russia’s LGBT community.
[38] More than 3500 artists signed a letter of support asking the Culture Ministry to drop charges from the director.
[41] The trial was called Kafkaesque in the media and unanimously perceived as a political mock by Serebrennikov supporters.
[25][16] Key witness of prosecution Eleonora Filimonova later told the court that she was pressured and threatened by the investigators.
[43] After 18 months,[21] in June 2020, Serebrennikov was convicted and given three years of probation and a three-year ban on leading any cultural institution with governmental support.
[47] On March 28, 2022, the court canceled the suspended sentence taking into account that all financial damage was repaid and Serebrennikov received a positive profile during his term.
"[52] Serebrennikov worked fruitfully even during the home arrest: he watched videos from rehearsals, recorded the comments and sent them to cast with the help of his lawyers.
That way he managed to release Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte” in Zurich and Verdi’s “Nabucco” in Hamburg.
[54] In 2018 his movie Leto about Russian rock legends Viktor Tsoi and Mike Naumenko entered the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival.
[57] Serebrennikov opposed the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, leading to first the temporary, then permanent cancellation of Nureyev.
His wide-ranging activities can be explained in part by the fact that he has no specific theatre or film training: instead he has a master’s degree in physics.
Often taken for a provocateur, what he shows in his work comes essentially from his open mentality, his vision, his many talents and a way of lateral thinking, that of a scientist or a true artist, who knows how to assess and understand reality in order to critically distil its fundamental aspects, and contribute to its transformation by letting the anxieties of our time find expression.