Harry Potter actor to star in a film by Russian director
9 April 16:24
English actor Harry Melling, known for his roles in the Harry Potter series, the Queen’s Gambit series, and others, will play the lead role in the English-language debut of Russian director Kantemir Balagov.
Deadline writes about it, citing sources, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
Butterfly Jam is set in a community of Kabardian immigrants in New Jersey. The film tells the story of a teenager whose father and aunt run a poor eatery specializing in Circassian cuisine. Along with helping out at the restaurant, the boy trains to become a professional wrestler. After one of his father’s plans goes awry, he is forced to take over, facing violence that will force him to grow up faster than he would like.
According to Deadline, the project is being financed, among other things, by the AR Content company of film producer Oleksandr Rodnyansky, who is originally from Kyiv. He founded the 1 1 TV company and worked in Russia for many years, but in 2022 he left Russia, was criticized by the Russian authorities, and was arrested in absentia.
In March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kantemir Balagov himself announced that he had left Russia and expressed support for Ukrainians.
Balagov gained wide popularity after the movie Dilda, released in 2019. The film won two awards at Cannes, and Russia also nominated it for an Oscar. In 2021, it was announced that Balagov would direct the pilot episode of the HBO series The Last of Us, but he withdrew from the project due to “creative differences.”
