A l’Est avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton. 2007. France. Written and directed by Chantal Akerman. DCP courtesy Royal Film Archive of Belgium — CINEMATEK and Fondation Chantal Akerman. In French; English subtitles. 85 min.
Chantal Akerman observes two performances by the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton of music from Russia and Mittleuropa (central and eastern Europe, “these two Europes with changing borders and different cultures, but impregnated with each other”). Accompanied by the Sinfonia Varsovia chamber orchestra and a cimbalom, she performs pieces by Rachmaninoff, Prokofieff, Dohnányi, Kodály, Tcherepnin, and others, as well as traditional Jewish folk songs. Some were originally written for other instruments or meant to be sung: “From a tragic song to a lullaby, from a short chant d’amour to a longer form, from a lied telling a dream to a frantic dance.”