Alla Demidova ranks among the greatest actresses to have graced the Russian-language stage over the past six decades, as well as screens big and small. She's famous for her tragic characters. Perhaps because she, above all, understands the...See moreAlla Demidova ranks among the greatest actresses to have graced the Russian-language stage over the past six decades, as well as screens big and small. She's famous for her tragic characters. Perhaps because she, above all, understands the world as a realm of worries and sorrow? Maybe this is what intrigued Ljubov Arkus - arguably the most outstanding figure in modern Russian critical film culture - about her in the first place. That as a result of this mentality, something about the final decades of the USSR as well as the new Russia crystallises in her, making Demidova the perfect focal point for a meditation on several separate questions, sketches of other creative geniuses, all of them crisscrossing through her life and career. All of which makes WHAT BEAT YOU NOTHING a most unusual undertaking, for it is not only a classical portrait of an artist, but an essay, a series of thoughts and observations that take Demidova as a starting point and finishing line.
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