Igor Minaev

Biography

Life and work

Director, screenwriter, actor and painter, Igor Minaev was born in the USSR. After studying at the National Institute of Theatre and Cinema in Kyiv, he began his career as a director in Odesa during Perestroika, whose spirit he captured in two feature films: Cold Mars (1988) and Ground Floor (1990). Both were selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Since the end of the 1980s, he has lived and worked in France. He directed L’Inondation (1993), starring Isabelle Huppert, followed by Les Clairières de lune (2002), Loin de Sunset Boulevard (2006) and La Robe bleue (2016), selected at the Berlinale, among other films.

“At first, they were drawings. Then came attempts at collage. Eventually, the two processes came together in drawing-collage. Shapes and colours—the most heterogeneous objects—mixed to form a new unity, joined by a hyphen.”

“Sometimes I wonder how my drawings are born. Is it the hand that knows the subject before the mind approves it? Or is it the mind that guides the hand along a path that is still obscure but becomes clearer with each movement? Where do the colours and forms come from? Is it reason that brings them together, or is it completely inexplicable and irrational? I do not have the answer. But drawing gives me real pleasure.”