Review of “School of Seduction” (2019)
Seen in 2020.
Review refers to a 60-minute cut.
Contemporary Russian sexism.
It’s an ideal form for an observational, non-narrated documentary about a social pattern, in a quotidian mode wholly unlike Koyaanisqatsi (1982). The long-term follow-ups jump literally years ahead at a time yet each student’s story is told in its own thread, without weaving it together with the others. Simple, elegant, highly effective, with skillful editing. The subject matter is interesting, albeit familiar, and the characters make a nice cross-section of ordinary people, not extremes. Adding unintentional humour, the first three Russian names that appear are all common Swedish words: Lera (“mud”), Lida (“suffer”) and Vika (“fold”). I’d like to see the 95-minute cinematic cut.