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Directed by Kira Muratova

Directed by Kira Muratova

7 Episodes

Few filmmakers have forged a voice as singular and uncategorizable as that of Ukrainian iconoclast Kira Muratova. Working on the margins of Soviet and post-Soviet cinema, she withstood decades of censorship to realize her uncompromising vision in fascinatingly fragmented, expressionistically heightened works that employ melodrama, satire, and absurdism to explore the psychic toll of life under oppressive political, social, and domestic systems. Her films—including the impressionistic family portrait THE LONG FAREWELL, her radical glasnost-era masterpiece THE ASTHENIC SYNDROME, and the dark con-artist comedy THE TUNER—delight in disorder and contradiction as they deconstruct the very language of cinema itself.

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Directed by Kira Muratova

7 Episodes

  • Brief Encounters
    1:36:24
    Brief Encounters
    Episode 1

    Brief Encounters

    Episode 1

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 1967 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
    Starring Nina Ruslanova, Vladimir Vysotskiy, Kira Muratova

    Kira Muratova’s first solo feature already displays her sui generis approach to cinema, in an impressionistic portrait of women at work and in love. Through an intricate play of fl...

  • The Long Farewell
    1:34:40
    The Long Farewell
    Episode 2

    The Long Farewell

    Episode 2

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 1971 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
    Starring Zinaida Sharko, Oleg Vladimirsky, Yuri Kayurov

    With its daring formalist freedom, Kira Muratova’s pointillist family portrait so perplexed and unnerved Soviet censors that it effectively halted her career for years afterward. A ki...

  • The Asthenic Syndrome
    2:33:36
    The Asthenic Syndrome
    Episode 3

    The Asthenic Syndrome

    Episode 3

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 1989 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
    Starring Olga Antonova, Sergei Popov, Galina Zakhurdayeva

    Widely considered Kira Muratova’s masterpiece, THE ASTHENIC SYNDROME is also Soviet cinema’s grand avant-comic opus, a deconstructive portrait of the nation in the final, frenzied s...

  • The Tuner
    2:42:18
    The Tuner
    Episode 4

    The Tuner

    Episode 4

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 2004 • Russia, Ukraine
    Starring Alla Demidova, Nina Ruslanova, Renata Litvinova

    Adapted from selected stories by Arkady Koshko, THE TUNER is Kira Muratova’s pitch-black con-artist comedy as well as a veritable masterclass in slow-burn unpredictability Capitalizing on ...

  • Change of Fate
    1:44:10
    Change of Fate
    Episode 5

    Change of Fate

    Episode 5

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 1987 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
    Starring Natalya Leble, Yuriy Shlykov, Vladimir Karasyov

    Kira Muratova’s typically idiosyncratic adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s play “The Letter” unfolds in an outpost in colonial Asia where Maria (Natalya Leble, in a role most famous...

  • Three Stories
    1:54:02
    Three Stories
    Episode 6

    Three Stories

    Episode 6

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 1997 • Russia, Ukraine
    Starring Sergey Makovetskiy, Renata Litvinova, Oleg Tabakov

    In Kira Muratova’s darkly ironic triptych, three seemingly unlikely people are driven to murder—shocking acts of violence rendered by the director as a kind of monstrous comedy of the a...

  • Among Grey Stones
    1:27:03
    Among Grey Stones
    Episode 7

    Among Grey Stones

    Episode 7

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 1983 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
    Starring Igor Sharapov, Oksana Shlapak, Stanislav Govorukhin

    In AMONG GREY STONES, Kira Muratova crafts a dreamlike coming-of-age tale, adapted from a short story by legendary Ukrainian writer Vladimir Korolenko. Reeling from the death of ...

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