Events
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24.4.2008 | Arsenal Cinema, Berlin

Before and After: Sergei Eisenstein and Kira Muratova

Screening with an introduction by Anders Kreuger

Two Russian films made by very different authors with very different methods. They form a diptych portrait of the Soviet mind, "before and after" the promised Communist future that was to be achieved through political control of all aspects of life. The General Line from 1928 by Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948) tells a "linear" and "tonal" story of collective will and technical progress at a stage when collective and state farms were still a "voluntary" option for Russia’s majority population, the peasants. The Asthenic Syndrome from 1989 by Kira Muratova (born 1934) has been hailed as the greatest film of the Perestroika years that concluded the Soviet experiment. Eisenstein’s carefully engineered narratives have imploded, and Muratova’s characters are adrift in the unbearably bleak and coarse reality of decaying real socialism.

The screening is organized in collaboration with Lunds Konsthall, Sweden and will be introduced by curator Anders Kreuger. This evening is presented by U-TURN Quadrennial for Contemporary Art in cooperation with the 5th Berlin Biennal as part of the collaborative project Opening Hours.