A transparent mystery
IFFR offered me great amount of material to think on, first of all on the role I have as a spectator and on my personal way to analyze and experience film. I was stimulated to “loosen some boundaries and sharpen some edges”. I was also very glad to finally shed some light on what are festivals about and what else happens there besides film screenings and parties, i.e. speed meetings for financing and collaborations with producers and directors.
When choosing my film agenda I picked up as many different and unique works as possible. One of them made a particular impression on me. I had never seen a film by Kira Muratova before and I attended the screening of 'Chehov’s Motifs' at the Cinemara 2 hall. This work combines in its lenght two Chehov works 'Difficult People' and 'Tatiana Repina'. In the first part a family is having a violent discussion during lunch. The dynamic of the relations is unfolded in a particularly sharp way, from one side with dialog where statements are repeated to an absurd and hilarious extend, and from the other with exceptional scenes in terms of movement and decoration. The problem of communication and the lack of it become visual details. Connection and similarity of animal and men worlds are beautifully juxtaposed. This theme becomes a bridge to the second part of the film where the offended son leaves his house and attends a wedding. Here the abyss between god and men is underlined by the constant rumbling and distraction of the crowd in the packed church. Style is completely different in the second half, the feeling is of a live show, it “slows down” into a real-time aesthetics and its actually difficult to sit though this scene.
Still from 'Chehov's Motivs'
Suffering and miscommunication in peoples’ live are not eternal themes in this film, Muratova doesn’t give answers to it but leaves an open door, an open ending. The director constructs a very refined and profound insight on the problem and provokes a reflection. I am personally interested in treating problems of such nature and the mastery with which such complex matter has been delivered intrigued me. The subtle translation of a written story into film made me think on how to work in order to make a contemporary picture while in the same time keeping the stories' true colours. The combination between rapidly passing scenes and very long contemplative shots juggled my perception of time and became an additional stimulus. My opinion is that the film leaves the spectator with a very transparent but in the same time mysterious image of our human condition and our social relations, with an impulse to believe and act, to strive for authenticity, all characteristics I want to incorporate in my future works.
Momchil Alexiev
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Read more about Kira Muratova on the IFFR website