This screening is part of the Kino Klassika 'Youth on the March: the rise of the Soviet New Wave' season, tracing the clash of generations from the thaw to Perestroika, and curated by renowned film critic and journalist Konstantin Shavlovsky. Unlike the classic films of the French New Wave, these films are still unknown outside Russia. Most will be shown for the first time, certainly for the first time in their original formats. Full details of the season can be found by clicking here.
Review by Ian Christie
Kira Muratova's second film [the story of a mother's overbearing love for her son], with a script by leading feminist
Natalya Ryazantseva, must be counted as one of the major casualties [in Russia] of
bureaucratic censorship during the 'era of stagnation'. The film's almost
unbearable tension is explored in a series of fluid, inventive sequences, which
bring a visual sophistication - with acting and music to match - quite
exceptional in the often-heavy-handed social issues department of Soviet
filmmaking. The apartment the mother and son share, with its territorial
placing of furniture, the boy's use of a slide projector to create his own
fantasy world, and the climactic workers' concert-party - all these show Muratova
streets ahead of her male contemporaries.
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