The Living Legend Of Russian Cinema: Kira Muratova

NewsFebruary 25, 2016
The Living Legend Of Russian Cinema: Kira Muratova

Pera Film, starting on March 5th, will bring its audience together with one of the most important women directors of Russian cinema, Kira Muratova’s collection as an ode to World Women’s Day on March 8th. Screening “Brief Encounters”, “Passions”, “Asthenic Syndrome”, “Tuner”, “Three Stories” and “Chekhov’s Motives,” the films will be available to view until March 19th.

In “Brief Encounter” Muratova touches upon ramshackles, lack of public facilities, and growing desperation of workers who leaves the countryside to try out their chance in the city. Banned and shelved during the Glasnost period, the film disturbed censorship authorities with its courageous look and open morality towards daily Soviet life.

Muratova’s most extraordinary film, “Passions,” narrates the story of a circus performer named Violetta. This film has been the director’s most popular film in Russia and won the Nikka (Russian Oscars) Best Motion Picture Award in 1994. With its usage of documentary, mockery, black comedy, and emphasis on social issues and psychological portraits, “Asthenic Syndrome” is a unique film…. The film described as an epic but is a very personal response to the Soviet life and history, won 1990 Silver Bear in Berlin Film Festival. A detective melodrama “Tuner” is inspired from one of the Russian detectives who lived in the beginning of the century. It tells the story of d poor music student and piano tuner Andrey. “Three stories” consists of three short films connected to one other with the theme of murder, and makes funny remarks of high cultural classics. “Chekhov’s Motives” is derived from two works of the author, his play “Tatiana Repina” and his story “Difficult People”.

Kira Muratova, who is known as “the living legend of Russian cinema”, was born in Moldovia in 1934. 20 films that she’s completed in the last 55 years reveal a different aesthetic and unique skill to narrate the essential features of society. Having created one of the most important cinematographic post-war Soviet/Russian era movies, Muratova was always in trouble with censorship; at one point she was expelled from the Filmmakers’ Union. In the end, when the glasnost period began, she was discovered by a new generation. In 1987, for the first time her films were screened outside the Soviet Union and were acclaimed as masterpieces. Kira Muratova evokes admiration with her films delivering the cruelty of everyday life despite sensation or moralism.

Author: Tutku Çetinkaya

RELATED POSTS