In Wheeler Auditorium
Admission $5.00

The first feature directed by actress-turned-director Lee Grant, Tell Me a Riddle is based on the novella by Tillie Olsen about the final days of an elderly Russian immigrant, a former revolutionary whose strong intellectual values never waned but were only suppressed during years of childrearing. The story is both touching and forceful, as Eva (played by Lila Kedrova) examines in often brutal honesty her marriage of 47 years to David (Melvyn Douglas); her Russian youth (shown in flashback); and her feelings toward her children, now grown. Fighting against her family's desire to sell the weatherbeaten house to which she is more attached than she is to any of them, she is nevertheless drawn closer to both husband and children. Integral to the story is the meeting of the generations: on the brink of death, Eva shares some of her secrets with her granddaughter, played by Brooke Adams.
Previous to Tell Me a Riddle, Lee Grant directed a highly acclaimed short film sponsored by the American Film Institute, The Stronger, based on a Strindberg play; and the documentary The Willmar 8. Tell Me a Riddle is the first project of the San Francisco-based three-woman team, Godmother Productions. The film is scheduled to open theatrically in the Bay Area on March 6, at the Cannery Cinema in San Francisco and the California Theater in Berkeley.