Farewell

Matyora, a village on an island in a Siberian river, is to be flooded for a dam and its people must be moved. The young are willing to go and the old refuse; the issue is not the houses but the graveyard and what each of them is being asked to leave. It is adapted from Valentin Rasputin's novel. The production has its own tragedy: Larisa Shepitko, who began the film, was killed in a road accident while scouting locations in 1979 along with four of her crew, and her husband Elem Klimov completed it. Finished, it sat on the shelf for two years and fought censorship. The burning of the island is among the most cited images in Soviet cinema. Who it is for: viewers who like Soviet cinema and heavy narratives about ecological destruction. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace, since this is deliberately slow and ritual.