Nikita Mikhalkov, who was last at Cannes sixteen years ago with Burnt by the Sun, for which he won the Jury Grand Prix, is a master, rendering beautiful some of the worst imaginable situations. He skips backwards and forwards in time, and in his main character's minds, but he never loses track of the story.

Mikhalkov not only directs Burnt by the Sun 2. Exodus (Utomlyonnye solntzem 2. Predstoyanie), one of the 19 films in competition at Cannes this year, but he also plays one of the main roles, General Kotov. The film, set during World War Two, is an officer's quest to find out what happened to Kotov, a political prisoner who ends up fighting with a group of other former prisoners. The search is also about what happened to Kotov's daughter.

There's a Burnt by the Sun 3, which is not shown, so we don't find out if father and daughter eventually find each other alive. But in this one, the love they share keeps them going.

Mikhalkov meanwhile has come in for strong criticism from other Russian film directors, as well as critics and intellectuals, who accuse him of abusing his power as president of the Russian Filmmakers Union. He is at the same time close to the powers-that-be in Moscow.

At the press conference after Saturday morning's press screening, RFI's Inga Waterlot asked whether Mikhalkov would consider resigning from his post after a petition against him. He responded in reference to the accusations in that petition, saying that it would be the same if he told everyone "he'd seen last night dancing naked at the Carlton Hotel selling pirojkis".