Adieu la rue des Radiateurs
Nina
Vladimir Léon
2008 - 36 min - DV Cam - France

"Nina was a Muscovite. She passed away not long ago. Nina had friends. Some of her oldest comrades were French; Pierre and Vladimir Léon, the writer Mathieu Riboulet. The film-makers recorded snippets of their meetings in Moscow and Paris, sitting around a table, telling jokes and creating memories. Following her death, Riboulet, wrote a piece of prose, what used to be called an elegy, "Le Regard de la source".
Today, it is this text, read by the author, that Vladimir Léon has filmed. In close up, the act of reading: the writer’s face, the effort of his voice which follows the inscription. This meticulous recording is blended with old footage; home movies from Radiator Road, when Nina flourished there. Vladimir Léon has accustomed us to his way of recounting history, in particular Communist history. "Nissim dit Max" and "Le Brahamane du Komintern" (selected at FID 2003 and 2006) weaving a collective history from the starting point of the idiosyncrasies in personal biographies and individual destinies. For him, collective history begins with its characterisation in the singular. A particularity heightened this time in the bounds of friendship, even if it is clear that Nina was synonymous with Moscow." Jean-Pierre Rehm - Catalogue FID Marseille 2008