Kira Muratova’s debut feature is an impressionistic dissection of a love triangle in freefall, which was banned by Soviet censors for twenty years until the advent of perestroika. Brief Encounters centres on the romantic entanglements between Valentina, a bureaucratic apparatchik (Muratova herself) and her geologist husband Maxim. When country girl Nadia (Nina Ruslanova) is hired as a maid, Valentina is unaware that she is already enamoured with Maxim after an expedition to her village. Told in fragmented, non-chronological order, allowing Muratova to utilise her perceptive observational skills in the depiction of two women from entirely differing backgrounds yet connected by fates, failures, and romance.

Screening as part of Restored and Rediscovered. Multi-film pass available.