In a sense, Andrey Zvyagintsev has been here before. The acclaimed Russian director’s previous two films, Leviathan and Loveless, had both won prizes at the Cannes Film Festival before making their North American premieres in Telluride, stoking Oscar buzz; he made the rounds in Los Angeles, shaking hands with voters while presenting his stark, uncompromising visions of contemporary Russian life. The same, so far, has also been true of Zvyagintsev’s latest, lauded work: Minotaur. He sits before me calm and collected on the couch of a Beverly Hills lobby, just outside of a tastemaker screening of his new movie after earning raves at…
