Vechnoe vozvrashchenie

In her final film, Muratova shows her playfulness and desire to experiment once again and structures this around her preferred stylistic device of repetition. A woman receives a visit from an old school friend, who tells her about a dilemma and asks for her advice: he loves his wife and lover in equal measure and can’t decide between them. This situation is repeated again and again with new actors (Muratova casts all her favorite actors one last time) and in new settings, interrupted by reverent passages dedicated to the difficulties of filmmaking: the producer tries to convince a financier of the merits of the film that we are watching. The ceaseless repetition of the same scene that is never resolved allows the absurdity of human attempts at understanding to come into even sharper relief. (al)