Barry Keoghan & Riley Keough Circling Kantemir Balagov’s ‘Butterfly Jam’​on February 10, 2025 at 1:55 pm

Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Riley Keough (Mad Max: Fury Road) are in talks to co-star in Russian director Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam, his first English-language feature after 2019 Cannes breakout Beanpole.

Set against the backdrop of New Jersey’s Circassian community, the drama revolves around a teenager whose father and aunt run a struggling diner specializing in Circassian cuisine. When he’s not helping out in the restaurant, the boy is training to become a professional wrestler.

After one of his father’s misguided schemes goes wrong, the boy is forced to take on board his father’s failings as he finds himself confronted with a violence that will force him to grow up faster than he would like.

As revealed by Deadline last year, the production brings together Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content, Emilia Pérez producer Pascal Caucheteux’s Why Not Productions and Goodfellas, which is also handling sales.

Balagov’s last film Beanpole, the story of the plight of two women in a devastated post-WWII Leningrad, premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard in 2019, winning Best Director in the section. It went on to represent Russia for the Best International Feature Film Oscar.

In a change of fortunes, both Balagov and Rodnyansky are now both living outside of Russia having been forced to flee after expressing dissenting views on the war in Ukraine.

Rodnyansky who is also known internationally for his long-time collaboration with Andrey Zvyagintsev, including on the Oscar-nominated films Loveless and Leviathan.

“Butterfly Jam has definitely been a labor of love for all of us. I believe deeply in the story and even more in the talent and vision of Kantemir Balagov. It’s crucial to have the right partners on such an important film and I couldn’t be happier,” Rodnyansky told Deadline last year.