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Limonov: The Ballad

Play trailer Poster for Limonov: The Ballad 2024 2h 19m Biography History Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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63% Tomatometer 27 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
A revolutionary militant, a thug, an underground writer, a butler to a millionaire in Manhattan. But also a switchblade waving poet, a lover of beautiful women, a warmonger, a political agitator and a novelist who wrote of his own greatness. Eduard Limonov's life story is a journey through Russia, America and Europe during the second half of the 20th century.
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Limonov: The Ballad

Limonov: The Ballad

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Critics Consensus

Limonov: The Ballad rides Ben Whishaw's electrifying performance through a seductive haze of countercultural cool, capturing the self-mythologizing chaos of its antihero while remaining too enamored to fully interrogate him.

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Critics Reviews

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Ben Croll TheWrap 08/08/2024
This ballad finds a groove and rides it out, showcasing the director’s chops and the star’s commitment while shining little new light on the ostensible subject. Go to Full Review Justin Chang The New Yorker 05/30/2024
Why make a film about Eduard Limonov, the globe-trotting Russian dissident poet and punk provocateur reviled for his pro-fascist sympathies? The filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov never musters a satisfying answer in this muddled English-language bio-pic. Go to Full Review Isaac Feldberg Little White Lies 05/24/2024
[Whishaw] has never had a role quite as complex and contradictory as that of Limonov... It’s a fascinating, slow-motion car crash of a performance: destined for destruction, spiralling magnificently all the way down. Go to Full Review Clotilde Chinnici Movies We Texted About 07/26/2025
Unfortunately, there is no actual commentary on the political undertones of the film, which is particularly unsettling for a biopic based on Limonov, a figure whose political life was much discussed during his lifetime. Go to Full Review Javier Ocaña El Pais (Spain) 02/21/2025
A film with hardly any complexity, much more exhibitionist than profound, which wanders through a film biography in a film that is too formalistic. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review Roger Salvans Fotogramas 02/21/2025
2/5
...a film with impressive formal muscle...but with a repetitive discourse, loaded with unnecessary underlining and, also, very self-satisfied. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review Read all reviews
Limonov: The Ballad

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Cast & Crew

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Kirill Serebrennikov

Director

Ben Whishaw

Édouard Limonov

Viktoria Miroshnichenko

Elena

Sandrine Bonnaire

Intervistatrice radio

Tomas Arana

Stephen

Masha Mashkova

Anna
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Limonov: The Ballad

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Movie Info

Synopsis A revolutionary militant, a thug, an underground writer, a butler to a millionaire in Manhattan. But also a switchblade waving poet, a lover of beautiful women, a warmonger, a political agitator and a novelist who wrote of his own greatness. Eduard Limonov's life story is a journey through Russia, America and Europe during the second half of the 20th century.
Director
Kirill Serebrennikov
Producer
Ilya Stewart, Dimitri Rassam, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Mario Gianani
Screenwriter
Kirill Serebrennikov, Paweł Pawlikowski, Ben Hopkins
Production Co
Wildside, Chapter 2, Fremantle España, Hype Studios, France 3 Cinéma
Genre
Biography, History, Drama
Original Language
Italian
Runtime
2h 19m