Долгие проводы Dolgie provody (Long Farewells)

After the screening talk with Eirini Fountedaki & Pia Chakraverti-Würthwein and a special guest

Kira Muratova’s second feature film Long Farewellsrevolves around an anticipated departure: Evgenia, an overprotective mother, struggles to let her adolescent son go, when she finds out that he does not want to live with her anymore. A “hesitation waltz” (Eugénie Zvonkine) of unfinished gestures, the film was considered “elitist” and “lacking in realism and motivation” by Party censors and was shelved for some years. Through jump cuts and musical melodies that rarely arrive at resolution, the film stands for Muratova’s trenchant cinematic aesthetics.