(Долгие проводы, The Long Farewell) 
Directed by Kira Muratova
93 minutes
In Russian with English subtitles 

This flick was made by the illuminated female Romanian-Moldavian-Russian filmmaker Kira Muratova. Her works were poetically enthralling, and open to experimentation, causing her to be marginalized - if not almost totally forgotten - in both the east bloc and west. She studied cinema in Moscow and made most of her movies at the Odessa film studio in Ukraine. She had a bold spirit and an incredible sensitivity, with some critics comparing her work to the revolutionary Russian movies of the 1920s—the wildness of Eisenstein with the lyricism of Dovzhenko.

Dolgie Provody is about a teenage son who's been raised by his single mother all of his life and has formed a deep relationship with her. But after he meets his father one summer, the son tells his mother he wants to go away and live with his father. When the mother starts to realize she's been abandoned, she is absolutely crushed. She starts to lose it and goes a bit haywire. That's a misleading description because what the film is really about is trying to navigate emotions, and letting go of things you have built your entire life around. It is about the complexity of human nature—one's dreams, one's longings, one's choices.  

What is also important about the film is that it's a snapshot of a world that doesn't exist anymore. When we look around us these days at the center of Amsterdam it's such a clutter—what a mess we made of things. It's surprising we can even breathe there. There's no space left without tourists or businesses interfering in some way. But when you look at a film like this, coming out of Ukraine during the Soviet period, it's such a relief, like a gateway opening up... like a breeze that stirs up suddenly out of nowhere and blows freely.

False images we have been fed of the former East Bloc tell us that there was no freedom, only grey servitude. But a movie like this betrays that notion. We see people who are actually more free to be who they really are than we are. They are not forced to market themselves in order to simply exist. It was made at a time when people were cultured, had a spirit and a soul. It was in that strength that they were free. This movie was made with a spirit, not a film script that has been approved by businessmen, distributors and studio executives. it refuses to follow a formula, it can change at a whim, flip around, redirect its focus and style... it feels unrestricted and impulsive, and therefore it embraces and reflects real life. 

I know it seems that I've gone off track, by writing so much but barely even talking about the story. And yet, that is what is special and beautiful about this film. A cinematic gem with superb cinematography. So much can be gleaned from this.