Latest feature Films
My Love Affair with Marriage
Love solves all problems – or so Zelma was taught as a girl. As a young woman, she falls in love and tries several different marriages. This rebellious, feminist film features elements of a musical and is an unusual blend of “love education” and a coming-of-age narrative, told against the backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Zelma is a young, spirited woman growing up in the countryside of the former Soviet Union. She learns early on that as a young woman she will only find love if she behaves well and conforms. After all, marriage is a woman’s destiny – or is it? With the hope that great love will make her a “whole woman”, Zelma buries her inner rebellious nature deep within herself and marries several times. A years-long quest for her own life plan begins – one that often resembles a rollercoaster ride.
Signe Baumane tells Zelma’s story on several levels. Figures who try to influence Zelma or who explain scientific correlations to us intervene again and again. For example, there are singing sirens who try to convince Zelma of traditional values such as marriage, morality and conservative images of femininity. Then there is the character Biology, who playfully and precisely explains to us the hormonal and biochemical processes that control Zelma’s behaviour, her falling in and out of love. “My Love Affair with Marriage” thus becomes an original and refreshing combination of love education and coming-of-age story, interweaving themes such as self-discovery, emancipation and sexuality.
Latvian filmmaker Signe Baumane, who was honoured with a retrospective at the 2021 Fantoche Festival, considers her latest film to be her most ambitious work to date. It combines a personal story with musical elements and scientific enlightenment, drawn in her distinctive style with partially surreal imagery and a great deal of humour. “My Love Affair with Marriage” has been nominated for numerous international awards and received, among other things, a Jury Distinction at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2022 and the Grand Prix at this year’s Animafest Zagreb. (Anaïs Steiner)
Zelma is a young, spirited woman growing up in the countryside of the former Soviet Union. She learns early on that as a young woman she will only find love if she behaves well and conforms. After all, marriage is a woman’s destiny – or is it? With the hope that great love will make her a “whole woman”, Zelma buries her inner rebellious nature deep within herself and marries several times. A years-long quest for her own life plan begins – one that often resembles a rollercoaster ride.
Signe Baumane tells Zelma’s story on several levels. Figures who try to influence Zelma or who explain scientific correlations to us intervene again and again. For example, there are singing sirens who try to convince Zelma of traditional values such as marriage, morality and conservative images of femininity. Then there is the character Biology, who playfully and precisely explains to us the hormonal and biochemical processes that control Zelma’s behaviour, her falling in and out of love. “My Love Affair with Marriage” thus becomes an original and refreshing combination of love education and coming-of-age story, interweaving themes such as self-discovery, emancipation and sexuality.
Latvian filmmaker Signe Baumane, who was honoured with a retrospective at the 2021 Fantoche Festival, considers her latest film to be her most ambitious work to date. It combines a personal story with musical elements and scientific enlightenment, drawn in her distinctive style with partially surreal imagery and a great deal of humour. “My Love Affair with Marriage” has been nominated for numerous international awards and received, among other things, a Jury Distinction at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2022 and the Grand Prix at this year’s Animafest Zagreb. (Anaïs Steiner)
Info
Duration 108'
Country LV/US/LU, 2022
Appointments & Tickets
Wed 6.9. • 20:45
Orient Cinema
Fri 8.9. • 21:00
Cinema Trafo 3
Sun 10.9. • 18:30
Cinema Trafo 3