Review of Slovo House (2017)
Seen in 2018.
The subject matter is certainly very interesting. The bulk of it is a list of rooms in the building, far too many to give a meaningful impression of each occupant with so little time and almost no surviving footage; the editor repeatedly resorts to softcore porn from the era just to have something to put on screen. I would have preferred a long-read article on the subject because making a film like this about executed old writers makes as much sense as dancing about them. I saw it at GIFF 2018 with the director present to introduce it and do a Q&A. Symptomatically, he rushed ahead of his interpreter, unable to adapt his urgent message—apropos of the new Crimean war—to an audience not already familiar with the territory.