Josef Herman: Warsaw, Brussels, Glasgow, London, 1938-1944
Josef Herman's early, cathartic work should not be missed
Red Army Faction Blues
Red Army Faction Blues persuasively blends fact and fiction in its account of Germany's turbulent times from the '60s to the '80s, writes Paul Simon
Josef Herman: Warsaw, Brussels, Glasgow, London, 1938-1944
Josef Herman's early, cathartic work should not be missed
Perestroika (15)
Directed by Sarah Turner
Thursday 02 September 2010
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Perestroika literally means "restructuring" and in Sarah Turner's film she tries to reconstruct a memory, combining images and sounds of a trip on the Trans-Siberian railway 1988 with another in 2008.
Intended as an epic tone poem combing visuals and a voice over, it's a supposed allegory that is as intriguing as it's irritable, as mesmerising as it's monotonous and as eerie as it's exceedingly exasperating.
It works better as a stream of visual consciousness - illuminating some incredible sights through the train window - but it's spoiled by its mournful narrative trying to invoke the memory of a death coinciding with the collapse of Soviet socialism.
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