IFFR 2013

Kira Muratova

Decline and fall of a society seen through the eyes of its outcasts. Muratova paints an astonishing portrait of adults and children alienated from each other. And turns to the issues which would become central in her later films: crisis, death and mourning.

Signals: Kira Muratova

Among Grey Stones

A depressed woman has just lost her husband and is about to destroy everything and everybody, but mainly herself. An exhausted man tries to find an escape from the daily chaos and routine in perpetual sleep. No, their paths don't cross, but each of them is destined to survive.

The Asthenic Syndrome

A beautifully unfolding love triangle: a geologist who is always away, his wife who can't stand her work and a woman who is her friend and his mistress, who is still full of illusions that are about to vanish. Poetic, vibrant and at the same time deeply melancholic.

Brief Encounters

A man wants to get a death certificate for his mother without giving any proof of her death. An episode from The Tuner not included in its final cut.

The Certificate

A married woman is accused of killing her lover and barely regrets what she has done. Loosely based on a short story by Somerset Maugham, this film marks a radical change in Muratova's vision. Since then, it has become more harsh and phantasmagoric, with surprising plunges into pure surrealism.

Change of Fortune

Using her favourite 'two-in-one' motif, Muratova brings together two pieces by Anton Chekhov - the short story Difficult People and the play Tatyana Repina. A poor student is driven from his home and stumbles upon a long wedding procession, shot by Muratova as a documentary-style reality show.

Chekhov's Motifs

Someone cheats a street artist by paying her with fake bank notes, and this sets a chain of tricks in motion. A very original sketch about the grotesqueness of everyday life.

Dummy

A woman is paid a surprise visit by her long-forgotten classmate, who needs her advice: should he choose a wife or a lover? An outrageously burlesque mise-en-scène is repeated many times but each time in a different place and performed by new actors. Why?

Eternal Homecoming

Muratova turns this 'regular' love triangle - two guys, one girl, all construction workers - into a vivid and elusive poem on the origin and mystery of love. In the ordinary 'soviet' characters - common people - she reveals poetic individuals and, in so doing, transforms the industrial construction set into a fragile scene of unspoken tragedies.

Getting to Know the Big Wide World

A couple of post-Soviet slackers want to record a video message for their friends who have moved to the United States. Muratova's view of different types of freedom and pleasure.

Letter to America

A divorced mother reunites with her teenage son, only to find out that he wants to leave her for his father. Delicate and heart-breaking portrait of loneliness and longing that remains unrequited. An early Muratova masterpiece, and her most lyrical film.

Long Farewells

Two little kids - a brother and a sister - leave their orphanage and embark on a journey in search of their long-lost father. A reversed 'Christmas Carol' that forbids tears (neither from characters nor from viewers) but leaves us in a state of emotional shock.

Melody for a Street Organ

Alexander Muratov

A young man devotes all his time to hunting and bird-catching. The very first film made by Muratova is a lyrical portrayal of the relationships between humans and animals. Screened in combination with Letter to America.

On the Steep Cliff

A man gets into trouble while trying to fight corruption at his cooperative farm. Muratova's first feature was directed together with Alexander Muratov. It looks like a traditional 'Soviet film' but the filmmakers manage to loosen the rigid structure and break away from dogma.

Our Honest Bread

Love affairs, horse races and male duels unfold at an isolated hippodrome by the sea inhabited by very extravagant characters. Muratova’s manifesto on the 'unbearable emptiness of being'.

Passions

A woman tries to get rid of the body of her unloved husband who was accidentally killed by a doctor. Muratova calls this impetuous and bizarre film 'half thriller, half vaudeville'. A journey full of laughter and fear, vitality and despair, mourning and celebration.

Second Class Citizens

An ordinary post-Soviet policeman finds a baby in the garden and wants to adopt it; this 'adventure' turns his life upside down. After the 'shock therapy' of The Asthenic Syndrome, Muratova moves into different territory and makes a brilliant absurd comedy. Nevertheless, its playful tone is full of reserved sadness and its happy moments are too ironic to be true.

The Sentimental Policeman

Three stories, three murders, three murderers: a man, a woman and a child. Each of these novellas is an exquisite mix of horror and black humour, subtlety and brutality. Perfect in its rigorous form, the film dwells upon the intrinsic imperfection of human nature.

Three Stories

A young crook and his capricious girlfriend plan to swindle two elderly ladies. But at first they need to gain their confidence and establish a close friendship. An expertly crafted, absurd comedy with a touch of a detective story. Funny and heart-breaking at once.

The Tuner

Stylised and thoughtful absurdist Muratova film consists of two parts that intertwine with each other. Part one is set entirely in a theatre, part two is about an aging man and his lustful urges. The film explores the borders between theatre and real life, actors and humans, art and death.

IFFR 2024
24 Jan – 4 Feb 2024