Book Discussion: ReFocus: The Films of Kira Muratova, by eds. Irina Gradinari and Irina Schulzki

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

The book discussion roundtable provides insight into the forthcoming edited volume ReFocus: The Films of Kira Muratova, ed. Irina Gradinari and Irina Schulzki (Edinburgh UP, 2025). Lida Oukaderova examines Muratova’s use of collections and likenesses, arguing that her aesthetic strategy—assembling people, things, and images into arbitrary and fluid constellations—challenges conventional notions of community, belonging, and identity. This, she contends, reflects Jean-Luc Nancy’s concept of being-in-common as a form of non-hierarchical, open-ended collectivity. Expanding on this theme, Raymond DeLuca demonstrates how Muratova critiques post-Soviet identity and the human-animal divide through the motif of zoo animals and a screen-as-cage analogy. By doing so, Muratova disrupts rigid boundaries between humans, animals, and objects, advocating for a more inclusive social order. Irina Denischenko explores Muratova’s use of collage as a fundamental artistic strategy, arguing that her films reject narrative totality in favour of open-ended, non-hierarchical assemblages that challenge canonical art, Soviet cinematic conventions, and dominant modes of perception. This situates her work within the experimental tradition of the historical avant-garde. Marina Rojavin focuses on Muratova’s use of fashion as an essential component of her cinematic language, illustrating how clothing and accessories reflect characters’ personalities, social status, and emotional states while simultaneously embodying the aesthetics and contradictions of Soviet and post-Soviet society. Finally, David Molina interprets "The Tuner" as a meditation on deception, arguing that the film blurs the lines between performance, sincerity, and manipulation. Through cinematic misdirection and the metaphor of musical attunement, the film explores how art itself can function as deception.

Sub Unit

• Cinema, Television, Electronic Media

Chair

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

Roundtable Speakers

• Raymond Scott DeLuca, Emory U

• Irina Denischenko, Georgetown U

• David Gomiero Molina, U of Chicago

• Marina Rojavin, Bryn Mawr College