From the East

From the East

1993 · 115 min · FR · 7.0 (33 votes)
Dir. Chantal Akerman · Starring Natalia Chakhovskaia
Documentary

In this incisive dispatch from the newly collapsed Soviet empire, bullet holes from WWII still pockmark the old stone buildings. Akerman journeys from East Germany to Moscow between the late summer and winter of 1993 ('while there’s still time'), chronicling in deliberate tracking shots, circular pans, and domestic tableaux yet another moment of radical upheaval in the 20th-century, the faces and bodies of Poles, Ukrainians, Germans, and Russians weighed down with obedient resignation and uncertainty.

VIBE

A quiet, observational journey through a region in flux. It feels like watching history unfold through the lens of everyday lives, offering a somber yet deeply human perspective on change.

introspectivemelancholicobservationalsoberingslow-burndocumentarycinéma véritéhistoricaltransitionsocietal changedaily lifepost-communism
▶ Stream on OVID
woman director