Using her adult voice, the filmmaker tells her story through the eyes of her childhood self. Realism, violence, naivety and surrealism coexist in a fascinating blend brought to the screen through an inventive recreation interwoven with archival footage and a toy theatre. In this hybrid autobiography, Vladlena Sandu revisits leaving Crimea to live with her grandparents in Grozny after her parents’ divorce; living daily with strict rules and punishments during the Soviet era; experiencing the war between the separatist Chechen Republic and the Russian Federation; and attempting to escape into an imaginary world protected by King Kong. Dedicated to children who lived through dictatorship and war, this work of contrasts is both unsettling and pop-inflected, revisiting the filmmaker’s memories to understand the cycle of violence that spans generations. (HSB)

Quebec Premiere

Memory