Behind the Looking Glass

Behind the Looking Glass is a self-portrait made by combining a series of film clips dating back from 1965 to the present-day (showing how other people perceive the author) and introspectively made video footage of the author, made over the past decade. The film is a collage and a dialogue; it confronts the author's life and those of twenty or so characters that she played in her career.

The intro sequence is a combination of old family photos and very short documentary clips from the period from 1947 – 1964. We can see May Day parades, shock workers, factories, rallies etc. The period from 1964 – 2004 includes short film clips, mostly close-ups of the author's film roles, combined with photos from her private life and fragments of various events: TV news, festivals, war, beggars… The matrix binding all that are the contemporary shots of the author's reflection in mirrors – taken in hospitals, cafés, offices, shop windows… Scenes of open sea, tranquil and calm, thread through the film.

The shots become longer toward the end of the film. In the last take, the author can be seen as a reflection in the sea that disintegrates and disappears. The impressionist cross-section of the time is depicted through a complex female character, shown through a period of more than half a century.