Sightlines · reception
How Petrov's Flu was received
2021 · Kirill Serebrennikov · Petrov's Flu on Sightlines
The arc
It divided Cannes 2021 — hailed as exhilarating by some, exhausting by others — but its stock has quietly risen since, now often read as a prescient fever-portrait of Russian malaise from a director who left the country the following year.
What’s debated
The perennial fight: is its delirious maximalism a hypnotic fever dream or two-plus hours of virtuosic incoherence?
Its footprint
Among cinephiles it circulates as shorthand for the 'fever dream' film — the one you recommend with a warning — with its bravura long takes doing the heavy lifting in every rave.
Where it stands
A cult object for the adventurous-Letterboxd crowd: not canon yet, but a badge-of-honor watch and a reliable 'trust me' recommendation.
Did you know? Serebrennikov couldn't attend the film's Cannes premiere: he was barred from leaving Russia following his widely criticized embezzlement conviction, having already directed his previous film Leto from house arrest.