Through the 1970s and much of the 1980s, Kira Muratova’s stirring films “Brief Encounters” and “The Long Farewell” went unseen, banned by the Soviet Union. “The Long Farewell” provoked such outrage from censors that Muratova, then a new voice in cinema, was stripped of her film degree and prohibited from filmmaking for years. The female characters pine, ache and, amplified by the dramas surrounding them, seem to scream: Life is hard! “Brief Encounters,” from 1967 and my favorite of the pair, is an audacious portrait of two women on the cultural fringes pining after the same man. The film opens on Valentina cast in chiaroscuro, groaning over unfinished work and dirty dishes.

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Persons: Kira Muratova’s, ”, “, Muratova, Valentina —, Valentina, Nadia, Nina Ruslanova Locations: Soviet Union, StudioCanal, Moldova, Odesa, Ukraine, who’s