Irina Souch

Whereas the notion of sincerity has already for quite some time been employed in Western film theory in relation to a certain style of filmmaking, in Russia this tendency only recently became manifest. This paper’s primary purposes are to explore whether the concept of sincerity is useful to theorize the recent emergence of the so-called new wave of auteur cinema (»novaia rezhisserskaia volna«) on the Russian cinematic horizon and to reveal an intrinsic connection between the artistic choices and specific social concerns this cinema comes to represent. Based on a close reading of three films by Russian new wave women directors: Oksana Bychkova’s »Another Year« (2014), Nigina Saifullaeva’s »Name Me« (2014) and Natalia Meshchianinova’s »The Hope Factory« (2014), I will argue that these directors’ sincere aesthetics not only engenders a powerful appeal to the viewing public, but also allows the directors to present the film characters as real and utterly recognizable young individuals with their anxieties, desires, and aspirations to create a lively and diversified portrait of their generation and ultimately to articulate their concerns about the socioeconomic situation in Russia today.

Irina Souch has a background in Germanic Philology, Translation Theory and Literary Studies. She holds a position of Affiliated Researcher at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) of the University of Amsterdam. Her research explores the relations between contemporary Western and Russian philosophy, critical theory, film and television. She is currently working on a book in which she analyses post-Soviet popular television series and films to address the questions of formation, assertion and representation of Russian identities. Irina also works as translator and conference interpreter.