BFI London Film Festival: Shame

A community of women await the return of their submariner husbands at a rundown military base on the Kola peninsula in Russia’s far north. Used to coping with uncertainty and danger, they are nevertheless very different in their backgrounds and experience. At the heart of the film is Lena (Maria Semenova), who seems indifferent towards others and, although she has been married only a few months, has taken a lover – the mystery of her behaviour unfolding against the background of rumours of disaster.

Ekaterina Mavromatis’s screenplay, clearly inspired by the Kursk tragedy, provides a sensitive and understanding portrait of the waiting women, while Yuri Mikhailyshin’s photography captures the desolation and beauty of the icy landscape. Uzbek-born director Yusup Razykov’s Shame is a profound and moving portrait of the human reality behind a disaster that resonated throughout the world.