View: Motherless in Leningrad (1973)

Novak was born in 1925 on a boat, near Ruse, Bulgaria. Her mother and father both drowned in 1931, leaving her an orphan in the care of SEW.

In her early twenties, Novak began to experiment with short lengths of film while working as a farm manager. After the war she studied and then taught progressive cinema.

In a long career she has pursued her particular style of 'socialist baroque minimalism', at first in ideological short films, and later in more personal work. She now lives in Lyon (emigrated 1995).

Her 1973 film 'Motherless in Leningrad' marks the beginning of the highly personal later work, often returning to the theme of water. She has described the intense sense of loss in this work as being for both the 'ideological and bodily parents - both are sources of life'.

This was an early commission for the Society, and has been restored for this presentation.