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 an overheard conversation, low-tier schemer Andrey (Georgiy Deliev) disguises himself as a piano tuner to access the apartment of Anna (Alla Demidova), a wealthy older woman. After quickly befriending Anna and her longtime nurse Lyuba (Nina Ruslanova), Andrey lets his girlfriend, Lina (Renata Litvinova), in on his ruse, inspiring ideas of murder and robbery in the unscrupulous beauty. But Andrey hatches a more devious plan: gain Anna’s trust by getting back the thousands of dollars that Lyuba lost to her own swindlers—and then go in for the big con. Shot in sumptuous black-and-white and featuring brilliant performances from a cast of Russian and Ukrainian all-stars, THE TUNER viciously satirizes a post-Soviet society of naivety, duplicity, and greed.
Up Next in Directed by Kira Muratova
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Change of Fate
Directed by Kira Muratova • 1987 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
Starring Natalya Leble, Yuriy Shlykov, Vladimir KarasyovKira 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...
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Three Stories
Directed by Kira Muratova • 1997 • Russia, Ukraine
Starring Sergey Makovetskiy, Renata Litvinova, Oleg TabakovIn 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...
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Among Grey Stones
Directed by Kira Muratova • 1983 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
Starring Igor Sharapov, Oksana Shlapak, Stanislav GovorukhinIn 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 ...
