The Decolonizing Potential of the Cinematic Decadence in Geopolitical Contexts of Odesa and Central Asia: From The Last Tango and The Minaret of Death by Vyskovsky to Among the Grey Stones and Change of Fate by Muratova

• In Event: Cinematic Decadence

Abstract

The purpose of the presentation is to examine the decolonizing potential of the cinematic finde-siècle decadence. The core concept is exemplified by the works of two filmmakers from Odesa who represent the most turbulent periods of Ukrainian history. Vyacheslav Vyskovsky, the author of the first feature film in Central Asia The Minaret of Death (1925, Bukhara People’s Soviet Republic – Uzbekistan), worked in Odesa in the period of turmoil including such shortterm political regimes as Odesa Soviet Republic and Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1918, which was paralleled with the theme of the British colonization of Argentina in his Last Tango (1918);
similarly, Kira Muratova’s “decadent period” in 1980s coincided with the approaching collapse
of the USSR, in her “decolonial trilogy”: Among Grey Stones (1983), Change of Fate (1987), and
The Asthenic Syndrome (1989).

Author

• Olga Kyrylova, U of Kansas