The Long Farewell

The relationship between mother and son forms the crux of Kira Muratova’s ephemeral second feature, which by simply prioritizing the messiness of human connections over the glories of the socialist state wound up banned for sixteen years. Slipping through middle age with an assortment of wigs, desultory lovers, and panic attacks, a party bureaucrat and divorcée has only her teenage son to lean on, but soon she may lose him through both the usual youthful rebellions and her own insecurities. Muratova conveys their life together and lives apart through elliptical, poetic fragments, forging a film of tenderness and sorrow, and a tribute to unconventional, independent women.

—Jason Sanders

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