Kommunalka - DaaVeeDee

Kommunalka (DVD) (*)

~~$29.99~~ $23.97

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Subtitles )
Russian ( Dolby Digital Stereo )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
96 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Short Film

Movie filmed in 2008 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )

Directed By:
Françoise Huguier

Written By:
Françoise Huguier
Mano Siri

Actors:
Françoise Huguier

Synopsis:

Kommunalka focuses on life in communal apartments in Saint-Petersburg. Françoise Huguier first became interested in this unusual form of communal living when she stopped off in St Petersburg on her way to Siberia in 1991, and later decided to explore it further. She knew she would need to make several visits, and find a way of getting behind these closed doors. To avoid being seen as a reporter, she rented a room in one of the apartments and stayed there on a regular basis. 'Someone was kicking my bedroom door: I woke up with a jolt. It was four in the morning. Two guys holding bottles of vodka were insisting we get to know each other. Their room was at the end of the corridor. On the way we bumped into an old woman, the one who can never get to sleep. With a wave of her hand she seemed to say 'don't worry, I keep watch day and night'. After two or three hours of more or less disjointed conversation, I left my neighbours' room and went to get breakfast ready in the communal kitchen. I started to cook an omelette on one of the gas cookers; suddenly I realised it was the wrong one I was using. Here, everyone is supposed to use their own things: tea towels, towels, knives and forks, pans, even their own toilet seat. In the Kommunalki, apart from the flat, nothing is communal, nothing is shared. And woe betide anyone who, like me, uses a neighbour's stove. Under the irate glare of one of the residents, a woman of 65 in a pink flowered apron and scruffy slippers, I hastily moved my frying pan on to the right stove.' Françoise Huguier has produced several exhibitions and books on Africa and Siberia, and also on the world of fashion and its workshops.

My very first days in these communal apartments in St Petersburg were absolutely perplexing, and I realised it would take me several stays and an inside contact to get to the bottom of these weird, closed-off environments. Over several years I photographed the place and the daily life of the residents - and especially of Natacha, who set the rhythm of my visits. Implicitly, and without my realising it, she became the main strand in my narrative and in my desire to be there and stay there. She embodies the quintessence of these communal worlds and the magnetism of a city that has been gnawing at me for so many years. How many times have I stood simply hypnotised by these disturbing visions of light and shade? Who spoke to me of ghosts? Who told me that at night in St Petersburg you can see the invisible and dream of the unutterable?

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 24 December, 2010.

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