19.3.10

TO MY WOMEN FRIENDS - YOU I LOVE


To my women friends
dir. Natalia Sharandak, 1993
In To My Women Friends, revealing interviews with six Russian lesbians convey the joys and hardships of being a lesbian in the former Soviet Union. The six women are interviewed separately, but splices of party/meeting scenes show a vital and strong community. While Tatjana speaks hesitantly about her sexuality, believing it to be a private matter, Muchabat charmingly flirts with the filmmaker. This fascinating documentary touches on a range of issues including women's prisons, transsexuality, lesbian and gay community organizing (the Wings Association, a lesbian group), coming out and homophobia. Under article 121 (which criminalizes homosexuality) lesbians and gay men in the former Soviet Union faced the threat of imprisonment, blackmail, government harassment and family rejection.

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You I Love
dir Olga Stolpovskaya & Dmitry Troitsky, 2004
Vera and Tim are successful young professionals living fast-paced lives in ultra-modern Moscow. Their lives crackle with the capitalist energy of excess, anxiety, consumption, and stress- and they are in love. Everything changes one night when Tim accidentally drives his car into Uloomji, a young Kalmyk day worker. (The Kalmyks are a semi-nomadic people of Mongolian decent.) The two men begin a torrid affair that involves howling, knocking over a lot of furniture and bringing down the chandelier. Tim is attracted to Uloomji's exotic demeanor and liberated by his impulsiveness and lack of inhibition. To Uloomji, Tim embodies a kind of class and refinement he sees only in magazines. Vera struggles to comprehend their bond and her boyfriend's erratic behavior. She is dragged reluctantly into a bizarre love triangle. Before long, all three lives unravel, exemplified by a visit to a Buddhist healer, a three-way in the bathroom of a gay bar, a faked death and a kidnapping.



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