“Vysotsky. Unknown… A True Story,” a new film by Anatoly Balchev and Apollo Film Production, will premiere at the 78th Cannes International Film Festival on May 16, 2025, at 17:45 in the Cinema Hall Arcades.
Balchev — a longtime confidant of Vysotsky — brings a rare authenticity to the screen. This is not a typical biopic, but a living chronicle drawn from personal memories, rare archival footage, and unseen private collections. Viewers will meet Vysotsky not as a myth, but as a man — brilliant, exhausted, loving, and daring.
The film is created with the support of SGS Studio, a Dubai-based leader in multimedia innovation. Notable appearances include Marina Vlady, Lyudmila Abramova, Bella Akhmadulina, and Bulat Okudzhava. 
Anna Shtukkert, cultural ambassador and representative of Apollo Film Production in Europe, leads the film’s global promotion.
SGS Studio continues to push artistic boundaries with upcoming projects like “Entropy: Requiem of Water,” and past works such as “The History of the Tragic Century in the Rhymes of Vladimir Vysotsky.”
True to its spirit, “Vysotsky. Unknown… A True Story” invites the viewer to see a side of Vysotsky rarely shown — raw, complex, and unforgettable.
Apollo Film Production and IFREE Studio are also preparing another Vysotsky-centered film: “They Will Not Erect a Monument to Me in the Park…”
