RUS 284 - Cinema after Communism

On December 26, 1991, the USSR ceased to exist. However, one day was hardly enough to make the former Soviet citizens forget nearly a century of communism. Now, over twenty-five years after the collapse of Soviet Union, this cultural memory continues to inform the cinematic tradition in Russia and the former Eastern Bloc. The course offers close, contextualized, analysis of major films from this region made between the early 1990s and the present. We will examine the films in terms of their formal structures and their reception, in relation to the collapse of communism, its cultural and historical legacies, and in light of recent political changes in Russia and Eastern Europe more broadly. The course focuses on Russian, German, Polish, Romanian, and Ukrainian cinema and investigates the works of such filmmakers as Aleksei Balabanov, Kira Muratova, Aleksandr Sokurov, Valeria Gai Germanika, Sergei Loznitsa, Andreas Dresen, Pawel Pawlikowski, and Cristian Mungiu.  Taught in English, films with English subtitles.

Satisfies a requirement in Film and Media Studies Interdisciplinary Minor.

Satisfies the Visual and Permforming Arts requirement

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity Requirement.