If the sprawling contradictions of any single life will invariably exceed the narrow narrative constraints of a feature-length biopic, the particular mess and mania unique to Russian poet-turned-rabble-rouser-turned-Nazbol party leader Eduard Limonov would be enough to send even the most seasoned filmmaker screaming.
Which is more or less what happened to “Cold War” director Paweł Pawlikowski, who spent years trying to find coherence for such an unruly tale before ultimately giving up and handing off the project to Kirill Serebrennikov. That Russian film and theater director did stay the course all the way through, even when that course required six months of shutdowns following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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