World-class ballet performer Oleg Ivenko stars as Rudolf Nureyev, alongside Adèle Exarchopoulos (BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR) as Clara Saint, and Fiennes as the famous Russian ballet coach, Alexander Pushkin. The cast also includes dancer Sergei Polunin, Chulpan Khamatova, Olivier Rabourdin, Raphaël Personnaz, and Louis Hofmann.
THE WHITE CROW captures the raw physicality and brilliance of Rudolf Nureyev, whose escape to the West stunned the world at the height of the Cold War. With his magnetic presence, Nureyev emerged as ballet's most famous star, a wild and beautiful dancer limited by the world of 1950s Leningrad. His flirtation with Western artists and ideas led him into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse with the KGB. The film offers a thrilling insight into Nureyev's dangerous defection, masterminded by the dancer's great friend, a 21-year-old Parisian, Clara Saint. In an astonishing finale at Le Bourget airport in Paris, THE WHITE CROW leaps to freedom, and in so doing defines his destiny.
"I'm really delighted to be reuniting with Michael Barker and Tom Bernard and the team at Sony Pictures Classics. It's been a huge challenge to make this film and there's no question that with their vast experience with such a wide range of films, SPC is the right home for THE WHITE CROW. It's great news," stated Ralph Fiennes.
This film reunites Fiennes with Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, with whom he worked on Sony Pictures Classics' SPIDER, THE WHITE COUNTESS, and INVISIBLE WOMAN, the last of which he also directed.
HanWay Films will be in charge of worldwide sales and co-financed the film with BBC Films and Rogue Black.
