MS Slavic 7

Last updated
MS Slavic 7
MS Slavic Poster.jpg
Film Poster
Directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz
Deragh Campbell
Written bySofia Bohdanowicz
Deragh Campbell
Produced bySofia Bohdanowicz
Deragh Campbell
Calvin Thomas
StarringDeragh Campbell
CinematographySofia Bohdanowicz
Edited bySofia Bohdanowicz
Deragh Campbell
Production
company
Maison du Bonheur Films Inc.
Release date
  • February 12, 2019 (2019-02-12)(Berlin)
Running time
64 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

MS Slavic 7 is a 2019 Canadian drama film directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz and Deragh Campbell. It stars Campbell as a young woman who discovers a series of letters in a Harvard archive between her great-grandmother and a fellow Polish poet. The film derives its name from the library call number for the box that holds the letters. [1]

Contents

It had its world premiere at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival on February 14, 2019, [2] and screened at New Directors/New Films on March 30, 2019. [3]

Plot

After being appointed literary executor, a young woman named Audrey Benac uncovers a series of letters that her great-grandmother had written to a fellow poet. Both displaced from Poland, Zofia Bohdanowiczowa and Nobel Prize nominee Józef Wittlin corresponded from 1957 to 1964 between Toronto, Wales and New York City. Set over the course of three days, Audrey embarks on a journey to Houghton Library at Harvard University to translate and make sense of Zofia's words.

Coming up against her aunt's disapproval as well as complications of access to the material, Audrey struggles to dig into an intimate past while facing her own existentially troubled present. Between silent segments of handling the letters at the archive and discursive monologues that articulate her findings, the film traces the emotional movement through the research process.

Cast

Production

Campbell plays Audrey Benac, a character she has inhabited twice before for Bohdanowicz in the films Never Eat Alone (2016) and Veslemøy's Song (2018). [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Color Purple</i> 1982 novel by Alice Walker

The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofia Coppola</span> American filmmaker and actress

Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American filmmaker and actress. Coppola has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.

<i>Poetic Justice</i> (film) 1993 film directed by John Singleton

Poetic Justice is a 1993 American romantic drama film written and directed by John Singleton, and starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, with Regina King and Joe Torry in supporting roles. Poetic Justice follows Justice (Jackson), a poet mourning the loss of her boyfriend from gun violence, who goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland on a mail truck along with her friend (King) and a postal worker (Shakur) who she initially cannot stand but soon helps Justice deal with her depression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwendolyn Audrey Foster</span> American scholar and filmmaker

Gwendolyn Audrey Foster is an experimental filmmaker, artist and author. She is Willa Cather Professor Emerita in Film Studies. Her work has focused on gender, race, ecofeminism, queer sexuality, eco-theory, and class studies. From 1999 through the end of 2014, she was co-editor along with Wheeler Winston Dixon of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. In 2016, she was named Willa Cather Endowed Professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and took early retirement in 2020.

Philip Marsden, also known as Philip Marsden-Smedley, is an English travel writer and novelist.

<i>The Keeper of the Bees</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Christy Cabanne

Keeper of the Bees is a 1935 American film directed by Christy Cabanne. The film depicts WWI veteran Jamie McFarland and his search for meaning in his last six months to live, and Molly Campbell, a young woman looking to save her sister's child from being left alone. It also features Emma Dunn as Margaret Campbell, Molly's charming mother and Edith Fellows as Jean-Marie "Little Scout", an adventurous young girl trying to fit in with her male friends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofia Carson</span> American actress and singer (born 1993)

Sofía LaurenDaccarett Char, known professionally as Sofia Carson, is an American actress and singer. Her first appearance on television was as a guest star on the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally. In 2015, she received recognition as Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen, in the Disney musical fantasy film Descendants, and later reprised her role in its sequels. She has since starred in the Netflix romantic drama film Purple Hearts (2022).

The Jay Scott Prize is an annual film award presented by the Toronto Film Critics Association, in conjunction with commercial sponsor Stella Artois, to an emerging talent in the Canadian film industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lulu Wang (filmmaker)</span> American filmmaker

Lulu Wang is a Chinese-born American filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the comedy-drama films Posthumous (2014) and The Farewell (2019). For the latter, she received the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and the film was named one of the top ten films of 2019 by the American Film Institute. Wang has also written, produced, and directed several short films, documentaries, and music videos.

<i>Descendants 3</i> 2019 Disney Channel Original Movie directed by Kenny Ortega

Descendants 3 is an American musical fantasy television film, and the third installment in the Descendants series, following Descendants and Descendants 2. It is written by Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon, and is directed by Kenny Ortega. The film premiered on Disney Channel on August 2, 2019, and in other territories worldwide starting on October 12, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Gorman</span> American poet and activist (born 1998)

Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. She rose to fame in 2021 for writing and delivering her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of Joe Biden. Gorman's inauguration poem generated international acclaim, and shortly thereafter, two of her books achieved best-seller status, and she obtained a professional management contract.

Irene Lusztig is a British-American nonfiction filmmaker and artist. Her work explores historical memory, archival materials, communism and post-communism, as well as feminist historiography.

<i>Maison du Bonheur</i> 2017 Canadian film

Maison du Bonheur is a 2017 Canadian documentary film directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz. It profiles Juliane Sellam, a 77-year-old French astrologer living in Montmartre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofia Bohdanowicz</span> Canadian film director

Sofia Bohdanowicz is a Canadian filmmaker. She is known for her collaborations with Deragh Campbell and made her feature film directorial debut in 2016 with Never Eat Alone. Her second feature film, Maison du Bonheur, was a finalist for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the 2018 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. That year, she won the Jay Scott Prize from the Toronto Film Critics Association. Her third feature film, MS Slavic 7, which she co-directed with Campbell, had its world premiere at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival in 2019. She has also directed several short films, such as Veslemøy's Song (2018) and Point and Line to Plane (2020).

<i>Veslemøys Song</i> 2018 Canadian film

Veslemøy's Song is a 2018 Canadian dramatic short film directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz. A continuation of her 2016 film Never Eat Alone, the film stars Deragh Campbell as Audrey Benac, a young woman attempting to research and recover the history of a largely forgotten female violinist and composer, Kathleen Parlow, who had taught Audrey's grandfather.

<i>Never Eat Alone</i> 2016 Canadian drama film

Never Eat Alone is a 2016 Canadian drama film written and directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz. The film follows a lonely grandmother as she tries to reconnect with an ex-boyfriend from her youth.

<i>Anne at 13,000 Ft.</i> 2019 Canadian film

Anne at 13,000 Ft. is a 2019 Canadian drama film. Directed and written by Kazik Radwanski, the film stars Deragh Campbell as Anne, a shy, socially awkward daycare worker whose attitude to her life and work is radically transformed after she skydives for the first time. It premiered in the Platform Prize program at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, and received an honourable mention from the Platform Prize jury. In December 2019, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list. After premiering on the festival circuit in 2019, the film's 2020 theatrical release was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

<i>Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You</i> 2019 Canadian short drama film

Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You is a 2019 Canadian science fiction thriller short film directed by Brandon Cronenberg. The film stars Deragh Campbell as Emily, an institutionalized woman who is describing her dreams to psychiatrist Dr. Fino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deragh Campbell</span> Canadian actress

Deragh Campbell is a Canadian actress and filmmaker. She is known for her acclaimed performances in independent Canadian cinema. Her collaborations with filmmaker Sofia Bohdanowicz—Never Eat Alone (2016), Veslemøy's Song (2018), MS Slavic 7 (2019), and Point and Line to Plane (2020)—have screened at film festivals internationally. She has also featured in two of Kazik Radwanski's films, How Heavy This Hammer (2015) and Anne at 13,000 Ft. (2019), both of which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

<i>Point and Line to Plane</i> 2020 Canadian film

Point and Line to Plane is a 2020 Canadian dramatic short film directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz and starring Deragh Campbell. The film continues to follow the character Audrey Benac.

References

  1. Mobarak, Jared (February 13, 2019). "MS Slavic 7". The Film Stage. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  2. Young, Deborah (February 21, 2019). "'MS Slavic 7': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  3. Asch, Mark (April 1, 2019). ""No One's Going to Knock at Your Door and Say 'I Want to Hire You to Be a Filmmaker'": Sofia Bohdanowicz and Deragh Campbell on MS Slavic 7". Filmmaker . Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  4. Mantagni, Ian (February 20, 2019). "Berlinale first look: MS Slavic 7 draws strength from the written word". Sight and Sound . Retrieved August 26, 2019.