On May 16, 2025, at 17:45 in the Cinema Hall Arcades, the 78th Cannes International Film Festival will host the highly anticipated premiere of “Vysotsky. Unknown… A True Story,” directed by Anatoly Balchev and produced by Apollo Film Production.
Far from a conventional biopic, Balchev — a director, writer, composer, and close confidant of Vladimir Vysotsky since 1974 — presents an intimate, first-hand narrative of the poet’s complex and turbulent life. Drawing from rare archival materials, private family collections, and eyewitness memories, the film uncovers a Vysotsky who is raw, fearless, vulnerable, and endlessly passionate. Not an icon, but a man.
The project is created in collaboration with SGS Studio (Dubai), a trailblazer at the intersection of digital arts, cinema, and immersive technology. Their partnership adds a bold artistic dimension to the film’s storytelling approach. 
Appearing in the film are close friends and contemporaries of Vysotsky, including Marina Vlady, Lyudmila Abramova, Vsevolod Abdulov, Mikhail Shemyakin, Bella Akhmadulina, Bulat Okudzhava, and others — voices that help recreate the spirit of an era and a man who lived at its very center.
Anna Shtukkert, Apollo Film Production’s European representative and a curator of major cultural initiatives, leads the film’s international campaign, ensuring it reaches audiences who crave genuine, untold stories.
SGS Studio, meanwhile, continues to expand its artistic frontier. Following the Cannes premiere, they will unveil “Entropy: Requiem of Water,” a groundbreaking digital show based on the music of Klaus Schulze, blending motion capture and Unreal Engine technologies. Their past project, “The History of the Tragic Century in the Rhymes of Vladimir Vysotsky,” offered a unique multimedia interpretation of 20th-century history through Vysotsky’s poetic lens.
“Vysotsky. Unknown… A True Story” is a daring and deeply personal film — a work that challenges official narratives and resonates with emotional authenticity. It’s exactly the kind of raw, compelling storytelling that Cannes audiences eagerly seek out.
In addition, Apollo Film Production, together with IFREE Studio, has announced a new cinematic project: “Vysotsky. ‘They Will Not Erect a Monument to Me in the Park…'” — further exploring the legacy of a man who remains one of Russia’s most beloved and complex cultural figures.
