How to Watch Minotaur (2026) Online in 4K

Minotaur is a 2026 political thriller drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, written by Zvyagintsev and Simon Liashenko, and loosely inspired by Claude Chabrol's 1969 film The Unfaithful Wife. The film stars Dmitriy Mazurov as Gleb and Iris Lebedeva as Galina. It had its world premiere in Competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2026, where it won the Grand Prix and the Cannes Soundtrack Award — Zvyagintsev's most prestigious Cannes recognition to date. The film runs 140 minutes and is being distributed in North America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by MUBI. InfinityTV's library of 150,000+ Movies & Series will carry the film in 4K Ultra HD as its streaming window expands internationally.

What Is Minotaur?

Minotaur is the long-awaited return of Andrey Zvyagintsev to international cinema following his 2017 film Loveless. The film is set in an unnamed provincial Russian city in 2022, at the moment the Russian government mobilised civilian men for the Russo-Ukrainian war. The title is drawn directly from Greek mythology: the Minotaur is the half-man, half-bull creature imprisoned in the Labyrinth of Crete, whom the kings of ancient Crete could only pacify with the periodic sacrifice of a fixed number of citizens. According to one version of the myth, King Minos sent 14 young Athenians — seven men and seven women — into the Labyrinth every nine years to be devoured.

In Zvyagintsev's film, Gleb (Dmitriy Mazurov) is the owner of an import-export business who holds his position in the local economy through the patronage of a military major. When the order comes from the major to provide 14 of his able-bodied employees for conscription into the imminent war, Gleb must decide whether to comply. At the same time, he discovers that his wife Galina (Iris Lebedeva) has been having an affair. The film follows the collapse of Gleb's carefully ordered life as corporate pressure, political obligation, moral disintegration, and personal betrayal converge. Critics at Cannes described it as a "brilliant look at modern world moral rot" and a film that "skewers Russian elites" with Zvyagintsev's characteristically precise, unsparing visual language.

Andrey Zvyagintsev: Director Profile

Andrey Zvyagintsev is one of the most internationally recognised Russian filmmakers of his generation. He made his feature debut with The Return (2003), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He followed it with The Banishment (2007, Best Actor at Cannes), Elena (2011, Special Jury Prize at Cannes Un Certain Regard), Leviathan (2014, Best Screenplay at Cannes; Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film), and Loveless (2017, Jury Prize at Cannes; Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film). Minotaur is his sixth feature film and the first he has filmed outside Russia — production took place in Riga, Latvia, in September 2025 and into early 2026. Principal photography wrapped in December 2025.

Zvyagintsev's films are known for their slow, deliberate pace, wide-angle compositions of landscapes and interiors, and their unflinching examination of domestic collapse within a morally bankrupt society. Leviathan used the biblical story of Job to examine corruption and state power in a Russian coastal town; Loveless used the disappearance of a child to dissect a marriage disintegrating under consumerism and emotional detachment. Minotaur extends this approach to the specific crisis of 2022, with the Chabrol-derived infidelity plot operating as the private counterpoint to a very public atrocity.

The Chabrol Connection

The film's acknowledged source material is Claude Chabrol's La Femme infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife, 1969), a French psychological thriller in which a bourgeois husband discovers his wife's affair and commits an impulsive act of violence that he then attempts to conceal. Chabrol's film was itself adapted into Brian De Palma's Unfaithful (2002) and Richard Gere's Unfaithful (also 2002). Zvyagintsev and Liashenko's screenplay uses the structural spine of the Chabrol — the discovery of infidelity, the husband's catastrophic response, the aftermath — and transplants it into the specific Russian moral landscape of 2022, where the political demand for human sacrifice (the 14 conscripted employees) becomes the film's Minotaur mythology, running parallel to the private crisis of the marriage.

The co-screenwriter Simon Liashenko has worked with Zvyagintsev on the script over several years. The script was in development before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and was substantially revised in response to events.

The Cast

• Dmitriy Mazurov as Gleb — a Russian actor known for stage work; this is his highest-profile international film role.
• Iris Lebedeva as Galina — the film's other central presence, whose performance critics at Cannes noted for its combination of concealment and vulnerability.

The film was shot by Zvyagintsev's long-term cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, who has collaborated with the director on every film since The Return (2003). Krichman's wide-lens, often static compositions — observing characters within their physical environments at distance — are a defining element of the Zvyagintsev visual signature. The Cannes Soundtrack Award went to the film's score, which critics noted as one of the most precisely integrated elements of the production.

Cannes 2026 Recognition

The 79th Cannes Film Festival ran in May 2026. The Competition jury awarded Minotaur the Grand Prix — the festival's second-highest prize after the Palme d'Or — in addition to the Cannes Soundtrack Award. The film also won the Sydney Film Prize for Best Film in Competition at the 2026 Sydney Film Festival, adding to its international recognition. Festival reviews from Variety, IndieWire, Deadline, and Little White Lies were strongly positive, with particular attention to the film's use of the mythological frame to analyse the specific moral logic of the Russian political system in the moment of mobilisation.

The Grand Prix at Cannes has historically recognised films of significant artistic ambition and social urgency, often films that were considered close contenders for the Palme d'Or. Previous Grand Prix winners include films by Abbas Kiarostami, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Dardenne brothers. Minotaur's award places Zvyagintsev in that tradition.

How to Watch Minotaur in 4K

Minotaur premiered at Cannes on 19 May 2026 and is being released theatrically in France on 14 October 2026 by Les Films du Losange. MUBI holds distribution rights for North America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and will release it in those territories later in 2026. To watch Minotaur in 4K on InfinityTV when the streaming window opens:

1. Subscribe to InfinityTV by visiting InfinityTV and choosing a plan — all plans include access to the full on-demand library of 150,000+ Movies & Series.
2. Download the InfinityTV app on your Smart TV, Fire Stick, Apple TV, Android TV, iOS device, or Android phone.
3. Search for "Minotaur" in the InfinityTV on-demand catalogue once the title is available in your region.
4. Select the 4K stream — InfinityTV's infrastructure delivers 99.9% uptime, ensuring Mikhail Krichman's wide, static cinematography reaches you at maximum resolution.
5. Use InfinityTV's 24/7 support for setup or playback assistance on any device.

For more award-winning international cinema and prestige drama on InfinityTV, see top movies to watch in 2026 and what's new to stream in 2026.

Why Is Minotaur One of the Most Significant Films of 2026?

The appearance of a new Zvyagintsev film at Cannes was one of the most anticipated events in international cinema for several years. After Loveless premiered in 2017, the director's subsequent projects were repeatedly delayed, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 created both the subject matter that Minotaur would engage and the conditions that made filming in Russia impossible. The choice to film in Riga, Latvia — a former Soviet republic and a country with direct historical memory of Russian occupation — is not incidental to the film's meaning.

The Minotaur mythology is the film's most publicly discussed element. In Greek myth, the Minotaur required sacrifice to remain pacified. The sacrifice was presented not as murder but as a civic obligation — the city that provided the young people for the Labyrinth was at peace with Crete. Zvyagintsev uses this structure to examine the logic by which Russian society in 2022 processed the demand for military conscription: not as violence, but as tribute; not as killing, but as obligation. Gleb's position — he is the man who must decide which 14 of his employees to give — puts him in the position of King Minos: the figure who benefits from the arrangement and who must administer the sacrifice.

The parallel infidelity plot — Galina's affair, discovered at the same time as the conscription demand — operates as a private moral universe running alongside the public one. Critics at Cannes noted that Zvyagintsev uses the two storylines to ask the same question from two different directions: what does a man do when the structures of his life — professional, domestic, political — simultaneously reveal themselves to be constructed on dishonesty?

Where Can You Watch Minotaur Online in 4K?

InfinityTV is the destination for award-winning international cinema in 4K. When the Minotaur streaming window opens, subscribers can find it directly in the on-demand library — no separate MUBI subscription required in supported territories. The platform's 150,000+ Movies & Series catalogue is updated as new theatrical releases enter their streaming windows, covering Cannes Competition titles, Berlin Golden Bear winners, and major festival discoveries across all genres.

Minotaur and InfinityTV's Art-House Library

InfinityTV carries a broad selection of award-winning international cinema alongside its 22,000+ live TV channels. Subscribers with access to the on-demand library of 150,000+ Movies & Series can access major Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and Sundance winners as their streaming rights become available. The platform's 99.9% uptime and global distribution infrastructure ensure consistent quality regardless of where subscribers are located, and 24/7 support is available for any device configuration questions.

For other prestige films arriving on InfinityTV in 2026, see how to watch on the best IPTV for Fire Stick for device setup guidance. The InfinityTV platform supports 4K Ultra HD streaming on all major Smart TV brands, streaming sticks, and mobile devices.

You can view Minotaur's full details at its official IMDb page and on the Wikipedia article for the film.

Frequently asked questions

What is Minotaur (2026)? Minotaur is a 2026 political thriller drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, written by Zvyagintsev and Simon Liashenko. Set in a provincial Russian city in 2022, it stars Dmitriy Mazurov as Gleb, a business executive who is simultaneously ordered to provide 14 of his employees for military conscription and who discovers his wife Galina (Iris Lebedeva) is having an affair. The title refers to the Greek mythological beast that required a periodic sacrifice of 14 citizens. The film runs 140 minutes and premiered at Cannes on 19 May 2026.

Did Minotaur win at Cannes 2026? Yes. Minotaur won the Grand Prix — the second-highest award at the Cannes Film Festival — and the Cannes Soundtrack Award at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in May 2026. It subsequently won the Sydney Film Prize for Best Film in Competition at the 2026 Sydney Film Festival.

Where can I stream Minotaur? MUBI has acquired distribution rights for North America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The theatrical release in France is set for 14 October 2026 by Les Films du Losange. InfinityTV will carry Minotaur in its on-demand library of 150,000+ Movies & Series in 4K Ultra HD as international streaming rights expand. Subscribe to watch on InfinityTV to access it when available.

Who directed Minotaur and what are his other films? Minotaur is directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, one of Russia's most internationally recognised filmmakers. His previous films include The Return (2003, Golden Lion at Venice), Elena (2011, Special Jury Prize at Cannes), Leviathan (2014, Best Screenplay at Cannes; Academy Award nominee), and Loveless (2017, Jury Prize at Cannes; Academy Award nominee). Minotaur is his sixth feature film and his first filmed outside Russia, shot in Riga, Latvia, in late 2025.

What is the film's connection to the Minotaur myth? In Greek mythology, the Minotaur — a half-man, half-bull creature — was imprisoned in the Labyrinth and appeased by the periodic sacrifice of a fixed number of citizens. In Zvyagintsev's film, Gleb is ordered to provide exactly 14 of his employees for military conscription in 2022 Russia, mirroring the mythological tribute. The film uses this parallel to examine the moral logic by which state violence is normalised as civic obligation.

What internet speed do I need to stream Minotaur in 4K on InfinityTV? InfinityTV recommends at least 25 Mbps for stable 4K streaming. For a film with Mikhail Krichman's wide, static cinematography, 25-50 Mbps ensures the image quality reflects the theatrical presentation. InfinityTV's 99.9% uptime infrastructure provides consistent streaming performance across all supported devices.