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Reflection, courtesy of Arsenal Films and ForeFilms

Four by Valentyn Vasyanovych

Mar 25 — Mar 27, 2022

The Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych makes films of icy beauty and brittle humanity. Beginning with 2017’s Black Level, he has honed a tableau aesthetic defined by an eerily cadenced sense of composition that hearkens back to the silent era, while looking forward to an inhospitable future and our tentative place within it. On the occasion of the New York premiere of Vasyanovych’s latest film, Reflection, in First Look 2022, MoMI invites audiences to consider Vasyanovych’s three narrative features as a poetic triptych, while also looking to the filmmaker’s key early documentary (Crepuscule) and a charming early short (Counterclockwise).

Presented with the support of The Harriman Institute at Columbia University

“The first thing you should know is that I started off as a cameraman; I’ll bring a camera anywhere I go, whether it’s a house party or a stroll with my child. If I see something intriguing, a location that inspires me, I’ll snap a picture. As for Reflection, the film was inspired by a real-life event I witnessed: a pigeon crashing against the window of my house. The impact was so strong the bird died, instantly, and it left this morbidly beautiful mark on the glass, a mix of blood and feathers—stunning, haunting, and cruel all at once.”

Read a new interview with Valentyn Vasyanovych on Reverse Shot.