Chinese film director Chen Kaige’s next project will be Swan Song, a historical epic about the nineteenth-century composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The upcoming film will explore Tchaikovsky’s musical career as well as his ambivalent sexuality in the waning days of Czarist Russia, based on a script by Shahar Stroh.

The title is a reference to the composer’s most acclaimed work, the ballet Swan Lake.

The new biopic will be produced by Moonstone Entertainment and Strohberry Films. Production will begin later this year in the Baltics.

In announcing the project, Chen noted that “The story of Swan Song goes beyond the music of one man. It is about the perpetual struggle of beauty and love against darkness and hate, and I am excited to be bringing it to a global audience. Creating a visually stunning and compelling story, paired with Tchaikovsky’s timeless music, is an extraordinary opportunity to combine art forms and produce something truly magical.”

Moonstone has described Chen as “a prominent figure in the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers [..] known for his epic storytelling, lush visuals, and unflinching portrayal of social and historical subjects.” The director first came to prominence in 1993 with Farewell My Concubine, a film that won him numerous awards, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and the Golden Globe and BAFTA prizes. He later directed Temptress Moon and The Emperor and the Assassin. Chen also created several so-called propaganda films for the Chinese government.

Swan Song will be the fifth film Chen has done with Moonstone, and their first English-language feature together. He had earlier made the English-language movie Killing Me Softly, which was neither a critical nor a commercial success. Describing the new Tchaikovsky production, Moonstone’s Etchie Stroh was quoted as saying: “Swan Song is the perfect vehicle to bring together everything that makes Kaige such a brilliant, iconic filmmaker. I’m thrilled for us to be working together for the fifth time on what I am sure will be a defining film in our long partnership and close friendship.”

Chen had also directed Do You Believe in Shame, a music video about Duran Duran. Reviewing it for ScreenAnarchy, Theodoor Steen wrote: “In a Kaige film, the actors are almost like marionettes or mannequins: they move and act in just an unnatural enough manner that they become larger than life. Icons. Symbols. … In the hands of Kaige, as in his films, the tension between humanistic portrayals and stately iconography is ever present, but he makes it work.

Kaige is a tightrope walker, as a director.

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