234. Ms Slavic 7; movie review

MS SLAVIC 7
Cert TBA
64 mins
BBFC advice: TBA

Gosh, I have watched some unmemorable films during the Covid emergency and Ms Slavic 7 would be top of the list of dullness.
Much of a movie which lasts barely longer than an hour is spent on a young-ish woman sitting in a library.
As a student, I made occasional forays to the Wolverhampton Polytechnic library to enable myself to seem informed enough to earn a second class honours degree in European Studies.
I don't think there was a single person on the course who would say they found their visits anything other than tiresome.
No surprise then, that simply observing another person researching her own family history would be mind-bogglingly dreary.
Deragh Campbell co-directs and stars as Audrey, the student who 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- 1964 between Toronto, Wales and New York City.
Unfortunately, while they may be fascinating to family, the letters aren't especially riveting to onlookers.
The tediousness is compounded by watching Audrey go about translating them in the Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Meanwhile, she faces the disapproval of her aunt for the whole project and there is an interminable scene at a family wedding during which the two have a tepid argument.
Apparently, co-directors Sofia Bohdanowicz and Campbell have returned to the Audrey they created in Never Eat Alone and Veslemøy’s Song.
I am pleased to say that I watched neither.
According to its press blurb: "MS Slavic 7 interrogates the tragic beauty and transcendent potential of human connection."
If you understand that then it may resonate. If, like me, you don't, it won't.

Reasons to watch: Honestly, I am struggling to see any
Reasons to avoid: Self-indulgent and boring

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 1.5/10

Did you know? With the help of novelist Hermann Kesten, Józef Wittlin and his family succeeded in escaping in January 1941 from Nice through Spain and Portugal to New York, where he remained after the war.

The final word. Sofia Bohdanowicz: "I discovered the letters, and I was really excited about the content. Deragh was just as excited about the content as if it were her own great-grandmother. She took it upon herself to pitch this beautiful structure of this woman poring over these letters over the course of three days." Seventh Row

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