Kira Muratova
1934 - 2018
The Garden of Desires
Ali Khamraev
Marianna Velizheva, Irina Shustayeva
The film is set during the last summer before the Great Patriotic War. Three sisters are coming to stay with their grandmother in the village. They imagine the world as a vast and charming "Garden of desires" and all members of the household are waiting for Asya's birthday. Asya has a sense of foreboding regarding the impending grief. Guests come to visit but none of them are her parents. She still does not know that her father was declared an enemy of the people, that tomorrow she will not see her mother and that the war is approaching.
The Garden of Desires
Brief Encounters
Kira Muratova
Nina Ruslanova, Kira Muratova
Country girl Nadia moves to the city and becomes a maid in Valya's apartment. Valya, who is a member of the local District Committee, does not know that Nadia fell in love with her currently absent husband, a geologist named Maksim, when he had visited Nadia's village during a recent expedition.
Brief Encounters
Three Stories
Kira Muratova
Sergei Makovetsky, Leonid Kushnir
A man goes to see his former schoolmate working at a boiler house and persuades him to burn in the furnace the corpse of his communal flat neighbor whom he has just murdered after a quarrel. An orphaned girl gets a job in the archives of the maternity home to find out the identity of her mother who abandoned her years earlier. She finds her, befriends her and takes the first opportunity to throw her into the sea. An old intellectual tries to explain to the neighbor’s five-year-old daughter “all the abomination of her lumpen existence”. The girl feeling hurt for her mother decides to poison the old man with arsenic.
Three Stories
Second Class Citizens
Kira Muratova
Natalya Buzko, Nikolai Sadnev
The movie examines the lives of the not-so-fortunate dregs of society through airy but uneven absurdist comedy. The unfortunates of the title are mentally challenged people, some of whom could be termed insane - or merely inane.
Second Class Citizens
I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman
Sally Potter
Kira Muratova, Natalya Ryazantseva
This glasnost-era documentary, which incorporates footage from films from the 1920s through the 1980s, looks at the history of women in Russian cinema through the eyes of Russian women directors, actors, and scriptwriters. The film’s title refers to a WWII slogan about women doing the work of absent men in the fields and at home. Featuring Kira Muratova, Natalia Ryazantseva, Inna Churikova, Nonna Mordyukova, and others.
I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman
Мелодия для шарманки
Kira Muratova
Lena Kostyuk, Roma Burlaka
Two young orphan siblings travel to Moscow in search of their missing father. Scared of being separated and sent to orphanages, they hope to reunite with the last link of their shattered family.
Melody for a Street Organ
Чеховские мотивы
Kira Muratova
Sergey Bekhterev, Nina Ruslanova
The film is based on A. P. Chekhov’s play “Tatiana Repina” and short story “Difficult People”. At his wedding, the groom is horrified to see among the church crowd his former mistress who had recently committed suicide.
Chekhovian Motifs
Среди серых камней
Kira Muratova
Igor Sharapov, Oksana Shlapak
A judge is devastated after the death of his wife and is neglectful of his children. His son befriends the children of a street beggar who live in an abandoned, derelict church. After his experience with his new friends, the young boy begins to feel sorry for his father and sympathizes with his loneliness.
Among Grey Stones
Чувствительный милиционер
Kira Muratova
Nikolay Shatokhin, Irina Kovalenko
In this affectionate, leisurely paced comedy, an Odessa policeman is out walking his beat when he discovers an adorable infant abandoned in a cabbage patch. He does his duty and takes the baby to an orphanage, but later he and his wife, who have an unusually affectionate and cozy relationship, decide to try and adopt the little one. What they must go through to accomplish that goal is anything but straightforward.
The Sentimental Policeman
Увлеченья
Kira Muratova
Svetlana Kolenda, Renata Litvinova
Blonde Lilia and brunette Violetta are fascinated by horse racing, and the young racers are more than a little attracted to them, too. However, the worlds of sporting and romance don't always coexist peacefully as the two girls learn the hard way through a series of touching, surreal, and sometimes heartbreaking encounters. One of the most beautifully photographed Russian films in recent years, this acclaimed modern classic was hailed at numerous film festivals including the Berlin Film Festival and Russia's Kinotavr Festival, where it won the Jury and Critics Prizes. Amazon
Passions
