THE “WORLD’S” OPINION – NOT TO BE MISSED
The cinema year opens with a “hangover” film, which never seeks to seduce and yet captivates us in its fantastic and cottony atmosphere. Quiet Lifethe fifth feature film by Greek director Alexandros Avranas, plunges candidly into the daily life of a family of Russian refugees: in 2018, after fleeing their country, Natalia (Chulpan Khamatova), Sergei (Grigoriy Dobrygin) and their two daughters managed to cross into Sweden and are living in temporary accommodation in Stockholm. The parents filed an asylum application and followed everything to the letter to integrate: their children are in school, the little one excels in the school choir, etc.
The film opens with the two blonde heads in dresses and socks, standing at attention in the entrance to the apartment, while two agents from the Migration Office come to inspect the home. The choreographed visit, with silent burlesque, culminates in the kitchen, when Natalia simultaneously lifts the lids of the two casserole dishes where the meal is simmering. As if to showcase her new role as a housewife. Exiled in Latvia after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian star Chulpan Khamatova – Good Bye Lenin ! (2003), by Wolfgang Becker ; Petrov’s Fever (2021), by Kirill Serebrennikov – works in a muted way on the dismay of his character, as pale as his gray-beige interior.
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