Friday, 23 October
Malenkaya Vera (Little Vera)
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We abide by the rules as set by the RIVM and we will have only 15 guests per screening. You can drop by at Cavia an hour before each screening to make a reservation at the bar. While at our venue, be mindful to remain at 1.5 meter distance from other people. We trust all to be responsible with their health and hygiene check.
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MALENKAYA VERA
Vasili Pichul | 1988 | Russia | 135’ | RU, EN subs
There is little belief in the midst of the Perestroika, where a worn out and jaded youth, fascinated with “degenerate” western rock n rock and bootleg vinyls of counterculture idols, seek Marlboro cigarettes as tokens of freedom. The protagonist Vera, whose name literally means “belief,” serves as the perfect metonymy of this new post-USSR generation. Much of the action takes place in her parents' old and cramped apartment in an oppressive atmosphere of domestic arguments couched in the broader context of social hardship and scarcity. Vera graduates from high school but has few future prospects and no clue what to do with herself. Deemed an ‘idle’ by her parents, she takes pride in smoking at the table, blasting loud rock music, and relentlessly disobeying them, while going out in sassy mini skirts (and plenty of hairspray) to drink with her friends. And then she meets Sergey, falling madly in love. No easy romance awaits her – social and material conditions force her to follow a well-trodden path to marriage.
The movie is, as Jeffrey Babcock puts it, “a time capsule,” absorbing you fully and viscerally in a recent chapter from history. Given our contemporary social and political world, however, Little Vera feels astoundingly relatable and familiar.
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Category:
- film
Topics:
- Classic