The bitter drink of truth according to the prescription of Natalia Meshchaninova

ST. PETERSBURG. Session Publishing House has released a storybook by director and playwright Natalya Meshchaninova.

Founded in 1993, the Session Publishing House is one of those saving islands in the ocean of verbal waste paper, where the foot of the discerning reader and cinephile surely steps. "Session" is about non-conformism, genuine feelings and real art, and not sky-high profits at any cost. The names of the heroes of already published or expected books are a good mark, a beacon “here, everything is honest”: Muratova, Balabanov, German, Lutsik and Samoryadov, Bodrov, Gorenstein, Tarkovsky, Sokurov, Elzesser, Timofeevsky.

This almost Oscar-winning list contains a great addition: a small collection of short stories by the playwright and director Natalya Meshchaninova. She is the author of the script for the film "Arrhythmia", which collected a crop of awards at domestic and international festivals. A piercing story without a banal monochrom, understandable to everyone living in this country.

Meshchaninova’s scenarios are skin torn to blood, pink glasses discarded as unnecessary, truth uncomfortable for the inhabitants of parallel reality. That’s why her brainchildren make it so hard for the viewer: the directorial debut “Combine Nadezhda” is about the harsh everyday life of the provincial sentiments, created in collaboration with Guy Germanika “School”, the long-suffering “Red Bracelets”, “movie with a human face” and sincere intonation "Another year."

The presence of obstacles is now perceived rather as a sign of quality. In the case of Meshchaninova, it is unconditional. The collection of her stories is an extremely sincere story about herself, a return to the origins that allowed or did not prevent a great talent from being born. That is true, according to Balzac, which is similar to a bitter drink, unpleasant in taste, but restoring health.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru