‘One autumn day, I rented a room in a communal apartment in Saint Petersburg (kommunalka in Russian). I photographed its inhabitants. Years passed, haunted by my former neighbours, I decided to return to film their daily lives.’

Produced at the end of her repeated trips, which resulted in a large collection published in a book of the same name in 2008, Françoise Huguier’s feature-length documentary both deepens and concludes her immersion in communal apartments. In addition to the exhibition at the Centre photographique, which presents numerous prints from Kommunalka, the screening will provide an opportunity for dialogue with the artist-director about this work, which occupies a central place in her oeuvre.

‘[…] The product of lived experience, the film […] presents, without raising its voice, a multitude of heightened solitudes through interviews, no doubt reworked to varying degrees, with each tenant. […]’
Les Cahiers du cinéma

‘The great quality of this film lies in the empathetic, even loving gaze that the filmmaker casts on her characters.’
Le Monde