The Passion of Marina

Colour, 35 mm
Russia, 2004, 55 min
Section: Documentary Competition

Synopsis

A reflection on the foreordained fate of a genius. The film delves into the childhood and dazzling youth of Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941), and the circumstances surrounding the life of the Russian poet in Prague and Parisian exile. The bitterness of rejection and aloofness which permeates her being climaxes after she returns home. Hurt by the tragedies which befell her husband Sergei Efron and daughter Alya, she hung herself after being evacuated to Yelabuga. Georgy died at the front. Her original poetry, founded upon concise imagery and the rhythmic life of word and line, was fostered by the heightened emotions of limitless solitude, was cultivated by the experience of homelessness, of an existence “outside” literature.

About the director

Andrei V. Osipov (b. 1960) graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Odessa (1982) and concurrently in journalism. He worked in television, then graduated from Moscow’s Higher Courses for Screenwriters and Directors (1995). He has won prestigious awards at home and abroad (Nika, Golden Eagle). He has made the documentaries: The Touch (Prikosnoveniye, 1993), The Duel (Poyedinok, 1994), Erase the Accidental Features (Sotri sluchainye cherty, 1994), Voices (Golosa, 1997), Blown in with the Wind (Zanesennyje vetrom, 1999), Et cetera... (2000), Hunting Down an Angel or Four Passions of the Soothsayer Poet (Ochota na angela ili Chetyre lyubvi poeta i poricatelya, 2001), The Passion of Marina (Strasti po Marinye, 2004).