What Minotaur Is About
At its core, Minotaur is expected to be a portrait of betrayal—but not the intimate kind you'd find in a typical marriage drama. The film is set to explore what happens when a man discovers his wife's unfaithfulness at the exact moment his entire business empire is crumbling, and the broader world is consumed by war. Think of it as a contemporary reckoning with the 1969 Claude Chabrol film The Unfaithful Wife, but filtered through the lens of 2020s geopolitical fracture. The premise suggests that Gleb's personal crisis won't exist in a vacuum; instead, it'll be shadowed by forces far larger than himself—the kind that make a marriage's dissolution feel almost quaint by comparison.
What We Know So Far
Director Andrey Zvyagintsev is helming the project, alongside co-writer Simon Liashenko. The film is a joint venture between MK Productions, CG Cinéma, Razor Film Produktion, Forma Pro Films, ARTE France Cinéma, ZDF, and LEAF Entertainment—a European consortium that signals serious ambition. The 135-minute runtime suggests Zvyagintsev isn't interested in a tight, efficient thriller; he'll likely take his time with the slow accumulation of tension and moral weight that's defined his previous work. Scheduled for 2026, the film remains in post-production, and no cast announcements have been made public as of now.
Why Anticipation Is Building
Zvyagintsev's track record speaks for itself. His films—Leviathan, Loveless—don't flinch from depicting systems of corruption and the ways personal failure mirrors institutional collapse. What's striking is how he finds the political in the domestic, the way a marriage falling apart becomes a microcosm for a society coming undone. Here's where the Russo-Ukrainian war backdrop becomes crucial: it's not window dressing. The conflict isn't just happening somewhere else while Gleb and Galina sort their problems—it's the reason those problems matter, the reason they can't be resolved through the usual channels of therapy or reconciliation. A European co-production tackling infidelity through a wartime lens, directed by one of cinema's most uncompromising voices—that's worth paying attention to, even eighteen months before it arrives.
Release Date and Where to Watch
Minotaur is expected to release in 2026. The film has not yet been released, and streaming availability has not been confirmed. Movie OTT will track platform announcements as distribution rights are finalized across territories. Check the Where-to-Watch widget below for updates as the release date approaches.
Frequently asked questions
When is Minotaur releasing? Minotaur is expected to release in 2026. An exact date hasn't been announced yet.
Is Minotaur out yet? No. The film is still in post-production and hasn't been released to the public.
Where will I be able to watch Minotaur? Streaming and theatrical availability haven't been confirmed yet. Movie OTT will update this page as soon as distribution details are announced.
Who is directing Minotaur? Andrey Zvyagintsev, the Russian director behind Leviathan and Loveless, is directing from a script he co-wrote with Simon Liashenko.
Is Minotaur based on anything? Yes—it's a contemporary reimagining of Claude Chabrol's 1969 film The Unfaithful Wife, reset against the backdrop of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
What to Look Forward To
Minotaur represents something rare in contemporary cinema: a major European director returning to a classic text not to remake it but to interrogate how its themes of betrayal and moral reckoning have shifted in an era of geopolitical fracture. Don't expect easy answers. Zvyagintsev doesn't traffic in them. What you should expect is a film that refuses to let you separate the personal from the political, that understands how private anguish and public catastrophe feed each other. When 2026 arrives, this will be one to mark on your calendar.
