‘Korotkie vstrechi (Brief Encounters) – Kira Muratova’

Valentina and Nadya love the same man; one is his wife, the other a fleeting encounter; neither knows of each other’s existence until a misunderstanding brings them together. A finely spun love triangle, in which the image of Maxim is crafted solely from the reminiscences of two infatuated women.

Kira Muratova (1934, Soroki, Moldova - 2018, Odessa, Ukraine) is both a legend and one of the most marginalised figures in Soviet cinema. During the Soviet era her work failed to conform to ideological requirements, and today it doesn’t correspond with commercial trends – in the past, her films were locked away in the censor’s vault and now they are essentially left to tour the festival circuit. Over the past 55 years she has made 20 films, each of which betrays a different aesthetic and a unique ability to articulate the most fundamental qualities of society.