Film Club Presents: THE LONG FAREWELL (1971)
Schedule
Wed Apr 24 2024 at 07:30 pm
Location
The Capitol Cinema | Auckland, AU
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Film Club is BACK for April with a very, very special screening - the exceptionally rare, long-censored masterpiece of prolific, trailblazing Ukrainian director Kira Muratova, THE LONG FAREWELL!A majestic mother-and-son psychodrama, the thorny and brilliant THE LONG FAREWELL was made during the brief, more artistically-open shift in Soviet censorship known as the 'Khrushchev Thaw', creating challenging, avant-garde work that prodded and poked at the conservative norms of the time. Following its production in 1971, censors were so outraged by the film that it was 'shelved' (or banned) by the Soviet Union, while Muratova was stripped of her film degree and banned from making films. FAREWELL languished in exile until the perestroika of 1987 and the fall of the Berlin Wall when it became available to view - though even then it remained difficult to find. Recently restored in 4K, it offers us a chance to be introduced to the fiercely individualistic voice of Kira Muratova, a formally experimental and fearless artist staring down a ruthless and silencing regime.
In THE LONG FAREWELL, Muratova captures the fraying and dying relationship between an overbearing mother and her moody teenage son. Muratova depicts this relationship in fragmentary, elliptical sequences, deploying an editing style all her own, challenging the established classical approach of her contemporaries at the time. In the modern era, when many of the threats Muratova faced in her lifetime seem to have emerged once again, being able to see her work in all its restored splendour takes on a special significance.
Said critic Natalia Winkelman: 'The works, which were Muratova’s first solo outings as a director, overflow with restless, disaffected women beating against the boxes in which society has confined them. The female characters pine, ache and, amplified by the dramas surrounding them, seem to scream: Life is hard! Let us free! ... [Muratova] went on to direct more than a dozen other features, earning international acclaim. Yet her couplet of debut films still hold a special, subversive power... In one dazzling image, Muratova conveys [the mother] Evgeniia’s loneliness: She shows the mother simulating being next to [son] Sasha by projecting photos of him on the walls of her apartment. Standing in the projector’s glow, Evgeniia gazes at the images, enduring social artifacts that — like Muratova’s films — hold small universes of comfort and pain.'
Don't miss the chance to catch this incredibly rare gem of a film - THE LONG FAREWELL screens April 24th, 7.30pm. Tickets, as always, are $10. See you there!
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Where is it happening?
The Capitol Cinema, 610 Dominion Road, Balmoral,Auckland, New ZealandEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
