'I'm beginning a new life': the (im)possibility of beginning or ending in Larisa Shepit'ko's Wings and Pavel Chukhrai's The Thief. (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lugarić, Danijela
• Is Part Of: Studies in Russian and Soviet cinema. Volume 14:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 56
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Memory -- (post)trauma -- the Uncanny -- Great Patriotic War -- Larisa Shepit'ko -- Pavel Chukhrai; Motion pictures -- Soviet Union -- Periodicals; Motion pictures -- Russia (Federation) -- Periodicals; Motion pictures; Russia (Federation); Soviet Union; Periodicals; 791.430947
• DOI: 10.1080/17503132.2020.1711609
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-3140

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article analyses two films, Larisa Shepit'ko's Wings ( Kryl'ia, 1966) and Pavel Chukhrai's The Thief ( Vor, 1997), from the point of view of the poetics of a traumatic past as the source for the present. Within the theoretical framework of the concepts of trauma, (post)memory and the uncanny, this analysis aims to answer the following questions: after the historical trauma of the Second World War, or the 'Great Patriotic War', is there any sense in talking not only about the future, but also about the present – if what Chris Lorenz terms 'hot history' haunts a person to the extent that it completely shapes his/her life? How does time 'return'? Where is trauma located? What are the meanings of the figures of 'lost objects' in these films? What happens when trauma is anchored around a myth?