Abstract
ABSTRACTValeria Gai Germanika has established herself as a leading director of post-Soviet cinema, earning major accolades and provoking audiences with her feature films, television serials and documentaries. This article draws on contemporary auteur theory to identify a discernible and evolving authorial signature throughout her works. By broadening the understanding of the auteur in the 21st century, we analyse not only the aesthetic and thematic hallmarks of Germanika’s filmography, but also her prominent role as media presence and cultural agent. We argue that the thematic preoccupations of Germanika’s films, such as female identity, coming of age and fantasy, are imbricated throughout her filmography and closely connected to a carefully cultivated authorial myth. These themes are united by a shared epistemology of radical liminality, rebellion, performativity and a rejection of stable ideologies. An understanding of transgression helps to account for her complex and contradictory views on social, political and religious questions. We observe a marked shift in Germanika’s later films from aesthetics of hyperrealism to a new expressionism. In this evolution we discern a certain internal logic, where elements of fantasy and imagination present in her early works have come to dominate in later films.
Published Version
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