Brief Encounters

Ukrainian-Russian filmmaker and screenwriter Kira Muratova began her career as a student of Sergei Gerasimov at the State Film School VGIK. To earn her diploma, she and her husband Aleksandr Muratov co-directed the 1961 short U krutogo yara. She later made her directorial debut with Korotkiye vstrechi in 1967, but the film was not released until 1987. The bulk of her films were made at the Odessa Film Studio and many were shelved by government censors until 1987-1988. Her films focus on successful, but emotionally troubled women who privately yearn for stability and inner peace while coping with their adventurous, high spirited, lovers, husbands and sons. In 1989 Muratova again ran into trouble with censorship with the satirical comedy-drama Astenichesky Sindrom because of her adamant refusal to remove one brief, relatively unimportant scene featuring obscene language. In 1990 the picture was released uncut thus marking the advent of a new permissiveness in Soviet cinema. In 1995 Muratova’s film Uvlecheniya received a number of Russian Nika awards including those for Best Picture and Best Direction. —allmovie guide