New York, October 20, 2025 – Bleeding Blue Bird is characterised as a surreal symbolist metadrama in which theatre permeates life. Over the weekend, Lev Prudkin’s Bleeding Blue Bird enthralled audiences during its screening at the Chelsea Film Festival in New York.
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The Chelsea Film Festival is an international event and a non-profit organisation located in New York that showcases independent films from both emerging and established filmmakers. The festival presents a diverse array of films, including documentaries and feature-length works, with a focus on the theme of “Global Issues.”
The film [Bleeding Blue Bird] distinguished itself through its theatrical language, surreal ambiance, and a profoundly personal narrative rooted in the director’s enduring relationship with the stage.
The cast includes Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who, Broadchurch) and Hannah Arterton (The Five). Darvill delivered a powerful performance that serves as the foundation of the story and heightens its emotional impact.
The soundscape plays a defining role in the film’s immersive experience. Bleeding Blue Bird features music by Depeche Mode, Actress, and Else, creating a sonic environment that heightens the film’s hypnotic tone and blurs the edge between stage and screen.
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Bleeding Blue Bird draws inspiration from Persona and Synecdoche, New York. It follows a theatre troupe during rehearsals for Maurice Maeterlinck’s The Blue Bird.
When an actor abandons his role mid-performance, the director steps in and the boundary between performance and reality begins to fracture. The result is a tense and immersive story set within a theatre of shadows, where spectacle and life slowly merge.
The origins of the film trace back to Prudkin’s formative years. During his childhood, he spent a significant amount of time backstage in a theatre where nearly his entire family was employed. His grandfather, Mark Prudkin, was a renowned stage actor who dedicated his life to performing in that very venue. For Lev, the theatre was not merely a concept but a tangible space brimming with mystery, unpredictability, and the potential for anything to occur.
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As he progressed in life and returned to theatres, he began to observe how the atmosphere could change between the stage and the audience. Occasionally, this tension would manifest in unforeseen ways. He remembers one particular performance where an actress, traversing the hall as part of the play, abruptly halted and directed her gaze at a man who had been speaking loudly. The room became silent. The energy was palpable, as if something genuine and irrevocable was about to transpire. That moment would eventually become central to Bleeding Blue Bird.
“I have always been drawn to the moment when theatre stops being safe,” says Lev Prudkin. “When the air changes between the stage and the audience, something real starts to happen. That is the feeling I wanted to capture.”
Prudkin’s previous feature No-One earned more than ten international awards, establishing him as a distinctive European filmmaker with a bold, personal voice.
Bleeding Blue Bird is produced by Vladimir Prudkin through Mirage Adventures Studios, with Michael Riley of Sterling Pictures (UK) serving as Executive Producer. Riley’s previous credits include Sugarhouse, Chosen, and Crowhurst.
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Prudkin’s next project is already in development. Building on his theatrical roots and visual precision, it promises to further define his voice as one of the most intriguing emerging auteurs in contemporary cinema.