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Serebrennikov - who premiered his film "Limonov: The Ballad" at
the movie extravaganza - held up a picture of Russian director
Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk at a news
conference in the French Riviera resort town.
"Today the trial started of these amazing young women," he said.
"They didn't do anything wrong, they just staged a play that won
a national theatre award. And for a year now they have been
jailed."
Both have been held on charges of "justifying terrorism" through
the play "Finist, the Brave Falcon" - written by Petriychuk and
premiered in 2020 under Berkovich's direction - which is about
Russian women who married Islamic State fighters.
The trial started on Monday, Russian media reported.
The women were added to Russia's official list of "terrorists
and extremists" in April, joining thousands of people and
entities who have been similarly designated in a crackdown on
perceived subversive activity that intensified after Russia
launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Kremlin does not comment on individual cases but says Russia
is engaged in an existential struggle with the West and needs to
robustly uphold its laws and defend itself.
Serebrennikov's film, which stars Ben Whishaw in the title role,
premiered at Cannes on Sunday.
It follows Limonov from the 1960s in his hometown of Kharkiv to
Moscow, New York, Paris and finally to post-Soviet Russia, where
he co-founded a left-wing and ultra-nationalist political party
in the early 1990s.
"Limonov: The Ballad" - based on a book by French author
Emmanuel Carrere - shows the main character's journey from poet
to aspiring political leader, with a postscript saying he
supported Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea before his death in
2020.
The Cannes festival has banned official Russian delegations from
attending since 2022, but Serebrennikov, who has spoken out
against the invasion of Ukraine, also attended that year with
his film "Tchaikovsky's Wife".
(Reporting by Tom Little, Miranda Murray and Lucy Papachristou,
Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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