Aarcflick

Alexandra Makarova's second feature portrays an exiled mother and painter who decides to return to her native Slovakia in the early 1980s after the release of her daughter's father. Being a single mother and successful painter is already difficult to maintain. But doing so as an exile who escaped the Soviet bloc and suffered deep trauma as a result is even more harrowing, especially when the past comes back to haunt you. Director: Alexandra Makarová Writer: Alexandra Makarová Stars: Simon Schwarz, Rebeka Poláková, Noel Czuczor Such are the burdens faced by Perla, the titular heroine of Alexandra Makarova's promising second feature, which screened in Karlovy Vary following its Rotterdam premiere in January. Gritty and tense, with stunning attention to period detail, the film is both a portrait of a rebellious artist and a time capsule revealing lives shattered by the Iron Curtain just a decade before its fall. Like a cross between The Memory of Joanna Hogg and Pawel Pawlikow...