Russian ETERNAL HOMECOMING • Russian Film Series

dir. Kira Muratova • 2012 • 114 min
Kira Muratova’s idiosyncratic, experimental cinematic vision was largely unknown outside the Soviet Union until 1987 when, with the advent of glasnost, her films were taken off the censors’ shelves and internationally recognized at film festivals. And yet her films do not focus on resisting or denying the Soviet — or any other – social system. They go further and deeper in their search for the timeless and disturbing reflections on human nature and existence in general. No surprise that after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of censorship, Muratova became even more uncompromising as she renewed and extended her focus on pain, violence and death. Her latest film is an embodiment of her cinematic universe, with absurdity and melancholy taken to extremes.