Unreal Estate – Film Screening

*Image Credit: Unreal Estate, directed by Ksenia Galiaeva

Unreal Estate – Film Screening
Date: 16 January 2025
Time: 17:00-19:00
Location: University of Amsterdam, VOX-POP Creative Space
Organizers: Jeanne le Gallic (student Slavic Languages & Cultures, University of Amsterdam; chair of student organization Radost) & Ellen Rutten (professor at the same department)
Contact: ellen.rutten@uva.nl, radost-fgw@uva.nl
Registration: E.Citron@uva.nl
Registration deadline: 5 January 2025
Credits: N.A.

With the heavenly surroundings of their Russian summer house as the setting, artist Ksenia Galiaeva turns her parents into actors in their personal stories, in hopes of creating a healing family myth. The Department of Slavic Languages & Cultures and student organization Radost screen her film in the presence of the maker, followed by a Q&A. Professor Ellen Rutten (Professor of Slavic Literatures) will host the Q&A and open with a short introduction. Unreal Estate was selected for the 2024 edition of the Dutch Film Festival.

In this experimental documentary, the filmmaker wants to overlie the pain felt by her parents– survivors of the Holocaust and labour camps – with happy memories and testimonies to their closeness. For more than 25 years, she has been trying to influence their memory and the family history with the power of images and wishful thinking, and thus heal the past. In this debut film, she turns her parents into actors in their personal The Russian summer house as a collection of metaphors, where time is not linear but mythical: the story continues while repeating itself.

Admission is free but seating is limited. Please register to join, E.Citron@uva.nl

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Met de paradijselijke omgeving van hun Russische zomerhuis als decor, maakt kunstenaar Ksenia Galiaeva haar ouders tot acteurs in hun eigen verhalen, in de hoop om zo een helende familiemythe te creëren. De opleiding Slavische Talen en Culturen en studievereniging Radost vertonen haar film in aanwezigheid van de maker, gevolgd door een Q&A. Ellen Rutten (hoogleraar Slavische literaturen) modereert de vragensessie en start met een korte inleiding. Unreal Estate werd geselecteerd voor het Nederlands Film Festival van 2024.

In deze experimentele documentaire wil de filmmaker de pijn van haar ouders – overlevenden van de Holocaust en werkkampen – overstemmen met blije herinneringen en bewijs van hun samenzijn. Al meer dan 25 jaar probeert ze hun geheugen en de familiegeschiedenis te beïnvloeden door de kracht van beelden en wishful thinking, om zo het verleden te helen. In deze debuutfilm maakt ze haar ouders tot acteurs in hun eigen verhaal. Het Russische zomerhuis als een verzameling van metaforen, waar tijd niet lineair, maar mythisch is: het verhaal gaat door terwijl het zich herhaalt.

Toegang is gratis maar het aantal zitplaatsen is beperkt. Registreren voor deelname kan via E.Citron@uva.nl

Contributor bios

Ksenia Galiaeva was born in Pskov and lives and works in Antwerp and Amsterdam. For her work, Ksenia uses the umbrella title ‘Unreal Estate’, which can be interpreted as autobiographical fiction (manipulation and constant rewriting of an autobiographical story), but also has parallels with the construction of (national, fictional) identity. Her photos exude a languid rest. She photographs her immediate surroundings: her mother and father and their dachshund in and around their dacha at the Russian countryside. She herself speaks of ‘vanitas still lives, but of people’. Galiaeva combines autonomous work with a small teaching appointment in Photography and Fine Art at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows, amongst others in Schiedam Museum, Fries Museum, Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Moscow MOMA, and Seoul MMCA Changdong.

Ellen Rutten is Professor of Literature and of Slavic Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and co-founder of the academic solidarity network UNE (the University of New Europe). Her interests include contemporary and historical (Central- & Eastern-European and global) art, literature, cultural heritage, and social media. Among other publications, She is author of Sincerity after Communism(Yale UP 2017) and co-editor of Imperfections: Studies in Mistakes, Flaws, and Failures (Bloomsbury 2022, ed. Kelly/Kemper/Rutten).