This film screening presents “The Tuner”, 2004, a feature film by Kira Muratova, perhaps the only Ukrainian director who continues to make films on a regular basis despite unprecedented crisis in the Ukrainian film industry. Born in Romania, reared in Soviet Russian culture, Muratova has lived all her creative life in Odesa, Ukraine. Most of her films were shelved by the Soviet censors as ideologically subversive, decadent, and dangerous. Muratova has always been polarizing, whether under the ancien régime of the Soviet Union or in independent Ukraine, simply because she has never hesitated to tell the truth in a way that is often strident, disturbing, and shocking.

“The Tuner” is a penetrating portrayal of a sick society on the verge of a complete moral collapse. The old network of interpersonal relationships is quickly falling apart under the onslaught of the kleptocratic capitalism unleashed under former president Leonid Kuchma, where money does not smell and virtues like honesty, decency, compassion or trust can lead to ruin. The main protagonists, two women past their prime, are by choice out of tune with the real world. Enter the Tuner. His nice manners, quick wit, and empathy are a subterfuge. Ominously, the tuning of an old piano becomes the “tuning” of the two ladies to the new reality.

Georgiy Deliyev (Ukraine), Alla Demidova (Russia), Nina Ruslanova (Russia), Renata Litvinova (Russia) – each deliver an unforgettable performance.

The film will be introduced by Yuri Shevchuk, lecturer of Ukrainian language and culture and director of the Ukrainian Film Club at Columbia University, New York. Discussion will follow the film screening.