Staff picks
Mustard in the Gardens
Piotr Armianovski
2018
37 Minutes
Staff Picks
Date
March 3–30, 2021
Join us on e-flux Video & Film for the online world premiere of Piotr Armianovski’s Mustard in the Gardens (2018), on view from Wednesday, March 3 through Tuesday, March 30, 2021. The film is presented as part of the monthly series Staff picks.
Olena is going home, to the village where she spent her childhood, now part of the “grey zone” conflict line of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In the garden, her brother has planted mustard to prevent weeds from getting into their neighbors’ garden. Olena lies down in the prickly grass and recalls how big and tasty the apricots, the cherries, the pears used to be…
“Piotr Armiahovskyi’s Mustard in the Gardens is a deeply moving, personal and complex commentary on the war in Ukraine. At first the film seems deceptively direct and simple: a young woman named Olena arrives to a village in the Donetsk region to visit the house where she spent her childhood. The images are striking and poetic, and look as though they were composed effortlessly with simple means and without a script. At the same time, the intelligence and emotional complexity of the performance by the protagonist Olena Apchel, as well as the remarkable photography and flawless editing give this work a tremendous power.”
—Anton Vidokle, e-flux
For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.
