The White Crow


The White Crow is a 2018 biographical drama film written by David Hare and directed by Ralph Fiennes. It chronicles the life and dance career of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, played by Oleg Ivenko.
It is inspired by the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanagh. The title is a reference to his childhood moniker of white crow, because he was unusual.
Principal photography was completed in October 2017. It premiered at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival and the 2018 BFI London Film Festival. It also screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Cinemania and Febiofest. Ralph Fiennes received the Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the Tokyo International Film Festival, with the film receiving a Tokyo Grand Prix nomination. The White Crow was released on 22 March 2019 in the UK and on 26 April 2019 in the US.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a positive rating of 68% based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 6.38/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The White Crow lacks the nimble grace of its subject, but as a reasonably diverting primer on a pivotal period in the life of a brilliant artist, it just about sticks the landing." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, gives the film a normalized score of 54 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."
The New York Times wrote “The White Crow is a portrait of the artist as a young man, an attempt to show the complex array of factors — biographical, psychological, social, political — that led to the moment when the 23-year-old dancer made a decision that would change the history of ballet: Nureyev became Nureyev by defecting from Russia to the West at Le Bourget airport in France in June 1961… Throughout , Fiennes and Hare suggest the extraordinary will and curiosity that drove Nureyev to dance, and to seek out art and culture wherever he could.”