Brief Encounters

Brief Encounters

Directed by Kira Muratova • 1967 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
Starring Nina Ruslanova, Vladimir Vysotskiy, Kira Muratova

Kira Muratova’s first solo feature already displays her sui generis approach to cinema, in an impressionistic portrait of women at work and in love. Through an intricate play of flashbacks and shifting perspectives, BRIEF ENCOUNTERS reveals the tangled romantic triangle that connects a hard-nosed city planner (played by Muratova herself), her free-spirited geologist husband (legendary Soviet protest singer Vladimir Vysotskiy), and the young woman from the countryside (Nina Ruslanova) whom she hires as her housekeeper. Blending observational realism with striking New Wave–style experimentation, Muratova crafts a wryly perceptive study of two very different women bound by chance and each navigating her own career, dreams, and disappointments.

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Brief Encounters
  • Brief Encounters

    Directed by Kira Muratova • 1967 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
    Starring Nina Ruslanova, Vladimir Vysotskiy, Kira Muratova

    Kira Muratova’s first solo feature already displays her sui generis approach to cinema, in an impressionistic portrait of women at work and in love. Through an intricate play of fl...

Extras

  • Elena Gorfinkel on BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

    Scholar Elena Gorfinkel describes the life of Kira Muratova and the making of her first solo directorial effort, BRIEF ENCOUNTERS, in this 2023 interview.

  • Isabel Jacobs on BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

    Scholar Isabel Jacobs offers a thematic and stylistic analysis of BRIEF ENCOUNTERS in this 2023 interview.

  • Kira Muratova on “Cinéma cinémas”

    Director Kira Muratova sheds light on the public reaction to her films BRIEF ENCOUNTERS and THE LONG FAREWELL, as well as her cinematic philosophy, in this 1991 interview conducted for the French television program Cinéma cinémas.