Zero City

  • December 9, 2015 / 19:00
  • December 13, 2015 / 14:00

Director: Karen Shakhnazarov     
Cast: Leonid Filatov, Oleg Basilashvili, Vladimir Menshov
Soviet Union, 1988, 103’, color

Russian with Turkish subtitles

One of the key films of the Perestroika era, Zero City tells the story of a Moscow engineer named Varakin who arrives in a small town with instructions to change the size of a locally manufactured air- conditioner part. He arrives at the company office and is welcomed by a naked secretary. Next, he finds himself sitting down to lunch. The dessert arrives, a cake that strongly resembles his own head, baked by a chef who soon shoots himself in the head. With its images of a burdensome past and an indeterminate future based on both folk tale and more modern forms of absurdism, Shakhnazarov's very funny and poignant film is a true historical touchstone. – by Kent Jones

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