A brilliant observational documentary filmed at the Civil Registry office in St. Petersburg, where people come to have births, marriages, divorces and deaths registered. 'It’s like a theatre here', one says in the beginning of the film, and it indeed is, the Theater of Life. The young women working in the office have a job that shifts from being verbally attacked and called idiots, to situations where they are subject to flirt, or where they master the happy ceremony of marriage. Faces, joy, sorrow, fun, despair... It’s all very well composed, rhythmical, with atmosphere conveyed, and lives up to what a documentary should be: multilayered and universal. And about Life.
Recommendations
view all
The Class of ‘92
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
My Mom Jayne
Naqoyqatsi
Directed by John Ford
Listen to Me Marlon
Heart of a Dog
Public Speaking
Making "The Matrix"
Don't F*#% With John Wick
Brother's Keeper
The Curious Birth of Benjamin Button
I Am Heath Ledger
Champs
Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
Being James Bond
The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends
A Plastic Ocean