New Zealand International Film Festival and City Gallery present
Dir. Marta Pulk A Year Full of Drama 2019
Estonia | English subtitles | 109min
A job is advertised: a paid position for someone who has never been to the theatre before to watch and review theatre full-time for a year. Hundreds of applications pour in from across Estonia and a candidate is selected: twenty-one-year-old Alissija, a magnetic, working-class girl from a rural, Russian-speaking family. Adrift and curious, she moves to the capital for a year-long immersion in the country’s performing-arts scene. This intimate documentary charts her coming of age as she contests loneliness, doubt, and writer’s block. 'I don’t know how to live', she declares, more than once. Through patient, perceptive camerawork, we watch her settle into her role. As the months pass, the shows she attends provoke her to question her own life—her traumas, fears, and ambitions. One year and 224 shows later, she is a changed woman. A Year Full of Drama is Marta Pulk's debut feature.
With its gentle pace and poignant observations, director Marta Pulk’s empathetic portrait of a young person coming into their own is energising and honest, making a strong case for the notion that art really can transform a life.
—Amanda Jane Robinson
Door sales thirty minutes prior to screening. All seats are general admission.
