Tilda Swinton names cinema’s most overlooked director: “It’s high time she made it”
There are many great directors who have been excluded from the history books and cinematic canon, with the film industry being an extremely non-inclusive business that excludes anyone who doesn’t fit their limited mould for genius. People of colour and women have typically been shunned from being included in this canon, often having to work ten times as hard in order to have their voices heard and be recognised in the same way as their white or male counterparts (even if their work is completely average).
It is a decades-long struggle that has stunted the careers of countless filmmakers, with others managing to succeed but not without having to jump through an extra set of flaming hoops. Whether it be Ava Duvernay, Kelly Reichardt or RaMell Ross, there are countless talented creatives whose experiences showcase just how uneven the playing field is, with film fanatic Tilda Swinton discussing the career of one director whose work has been criminally ignored and overlooked.
To have to overcome the barriers in the industry as a result of your gender is one thing, but this is especially difficult when your work is also being censored by the government, something that didn’t deter Ukrainian director, Kira Muratova. Known for her experimental and unusual style, Muratova is one of the key figures from Ukrainian cinema, something that is baffling given just how much her films were challenged and censored.
Her style is completely irreplaceable and unique, with films like The Asthenic Syndrome and The Long Farewell capturing a bleakness yet a sense of possibility within the constraints of the Soviet system that continues to be both disturbing and freeing. It can be exhausting and poetic at the same time, capturing a slice of life that you can’t stop watching, no matter how destructive and hard to watch it might be.
As well as this, the director pioneered new techniques that forever altered the process of filmmaking, something that countless directors continue to reap the benefits of but perhaps without knowing that it was she who created them.
Yet despite her reputation in Ukraine and creative achievements, she is rarely acknowledged within the global canon and remains unknown by many, with Swinton highlighting the unfairness of this, given how influential her work has been. The actor said, “When Kira Muratova died in June last year, there was no foot-long obituary in the Western newspapers. This masterly director of 22 films, pioneer of the complex crane manoeuvre, of tracking shots to give any in Taxi Driver a breathtaking run for its money: her epic, rebarbative, wildly chaotic, furious, visionary films have earned her a revered place in the international—intergalactic—canon for her work of five decades. It’s high time she made it over the wider wire”.
Muratova was an undeniable force, and perhaps it takes another cinematic icon to help elevate her work to bring it into the public consciousness. However, it remains another example of a woman who was working ahead of her time and deserves to be recognised on a wider scale for all her contributions to cinema.
