Cinematic Lineage in Ukrainian Women’s Cinema: Kira Muratova and Eva Neymann

• In Event: Space, Place, and Mediated Memory in Baltic and East European Cinema

Abstract

Reflecting on the confines and the opportunities that the concepts of national identity and the artistic canon entail, this article offers a comparative analysis of two Ukrainian filmmakers with multicultural backgrounds: Kira Muratova and Eva Neymann. While film critics have speculated about Muratova’s ‘disciples’, frequently citing Eva Neymann among them, Neymann herself has openly dismissed any idea of being an epigone – a position perhaps rooted in the “anxiety of influence” that artists often experience with respect to their forerunners. Nonetheless, a thread of continuity is discernible in Neymann’s oeuvre, not only through the shared backdrop of Odesa but also in the nuanced parallels in visual composition, narrative, and pacing that recall Muratova’s works while maintaining Neymann’s unique cinematic voice. Employing Harold Bloom’s theory of influence alongside Elizabeth Bronfen’s concept of crossmapping, this paper aims to illuminate the dynamics of productive, albeit not necessarily conscious, influence within the cinematic worlds of the two filmmakers. Focusing on Neymann’s debut feature, By the River (2007), and her subsequent film House with a Turret (2012), the analysis reveals how Muratova’s iconography resonates within these works. It also examines how cine-poetic lineage is sustained through aesthetic formalisation, circulation, appropriation, quotation, and refiguration of images and gestures.

Author

• Irina Schulzki, Ludwig-Maximilians-U Munich (Germany)