KOMMUNALKA

Mention spéciale du Jury pour le montage au RIDM 2008 Prix du Jury Anna Politkovskaïa au Festival de Créteil - 2009

Kommunalka observes life in a communal flat in Saint Petersburg. This mode of life so closely linked to Russia’s Soviet past remains a common phenomenon. Today, 90,000 flats are shared due to the ongoing economic crisis. The film takes a look at everyday life in these flats and at the human relationships that develop in such close quarters. A communal flat is a place where people generally know nothing about each other; it’s a sealed-off space that serves as a backdrop against which the contradictions of the human condition and those within Russian culture and society in these times of great change are exposed and explode.