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Presented by VTIFF
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Directed by Kantemir Balagov
Russia | 2020 | Fiction | 137 mins | Russian w/ English subtitles
An exquisite, beautiful, and brave film about set in post-WWII Leningrad. Two women, Iya and Masha, intensely bonded after fighting side by side as anti-aircraft gunners, attempt to readjust to a haunted world. Iya works as a nurse in a shell-shocked hospital, presiding over traumatized soldiers. The war may be over but the hollow eyes of those crowding the hospital tell a different story. The story gradually unveils itself as a film about female friendship but also about the fate of women during and after wartime – a topic too often treated as a cinematic-historical footnote compared to the trauma of men in war. Balagov and his co-writer have noted that they drew inspiration from Svetlana Alexievich’s “The Unwomanly Face of War,” a book of monologues from women who lived through World War II. The 28-year-old director won Un Certain Regard’s Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
Read the Director’s statement HERE