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C H A P T E R 7
M I S E - E N - S C E N E S O F T H E I M P O S S I B L E : S O V I E T A N D R U S S I A N
H O R R O R F I L M S
Christina Stojanova
This is not life but shadow of life and this is not movement but the soundless shadow of
movement.
- A. M. Gorky 1
Every drive is virtually a death drive.
- Jacques Lacan 2
INTRODUCTION
When discussing 'Russian' Horror Cinema, we are looking at almost a hundred years of filmmaking,
the larger part of which (1917-91) encompasses the Soviet period, flanked by two relatively short
and very different traditions: the Russian Imperial Cinema (1907-17) and the New Russian Cinema
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