Close-up Shostakovich

Humour, sarcasm, grotesqueness – and not least an overriding pessimism – are characteristics not only found in Shostakovich himself but also in his music, as shown in this film by Oliver Becker, which sets out to be as authentic as possible in portraying the composer, neither denouncing him as an opportunist nor praising him as a dissident. Instead, its seven chapters try to reconstruct the narrative of the young star composer apparently becoming the stiff state composer, most of whose life is still shrouded in mystery. The result is a fascinating portrait of one of the great composers of the 20th-century composers, and an artist who had to sustain a creative career through unprecedented political turmoil and oppression.