Author Masha Shpolberg

Some filmmakers make their mark with a searing unity of vision. Film after film, they impose their inner landscapes or, perhaps, their unique way of seeing onto the world. Others begin not with themselves, but ...

A Soviet Fairy Tale: Ironiya sudby, ili S legkim parom! (The Irony of Fate, or I Hope You Have a Nice Bath!, Eldar Riazanov, 1976) Canon formation tends to be a highly contentious affair, and part of the job o...

Humanising the Soviet Subject: Letiat zhuravli (The Cranes Are Flying) When Letiat zhuravli (The Cranes Are Flying) was released in late 1957, it came as a revelation to audiences both within the Soviet Union ...

In 1971, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Bohdan Kosiński and Tomasz Zygadło, three eminent if then still young documentarians, co-signed a manifesto entitled “Documentary Filmmakers Make Their Case.” In the manifesto, th...