The Asthenic Syndrome

(Astenicheskiy sindrom)

featuring

Sergei Popov, Olga Antonova, Natalia Busko, Galina Sakurdaeva,

Legendary director Muratova’s demented chronicle of the constant absurdities and insults of Soviet life in the 1980s takes its title and its cues from a psychological condition that alternates between maniacal aggression and apathetic inaction. Fittingly split into two parts, this Ukrainian “post-glasnost film to end all post-glasnost films” (Derek Malcolm) may concern a possibly grieving widow or a possibly insane professor, but it’s the mood of impending collapse and seething madness that matters, not the narrative. “A movie that breaks all the rules when it comes to telling a story and clearly distinguishing between fiction and documentary, fantasy and reality, anger and detachment” (Jonathan Rosenbaum).

—Jason Sanders

Event Accessibility

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FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Kira Muratova
  • Sergei Popov
  • Aleksandr Chernitch
Cinematographer
  • Vladimir Pankov
Language
  • Russian
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • DCP
  • 153 mins
Source
  • Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center
Permission
  • Janus Films