School of Seduction

Through three separate stories over a period of almost ten years, we get to meet three women in contemporary Russia. All have in common that they participate in a course where women learn how to seduce men. The leader of the course is a middle-aged man more than 20 years older than the women, who are in their early 30s. The exercises performed in the course are partly comical and partly deeply disturbing. We also meet the women’s friends and families, and get a closer look into quarrels about children, housework and love. The film serves as an excellent deep dive into Putin's Russia, where traditional values are the official ideal, but also the last goodbye to individuality and freedom for many women.

Alina Rudnitskaya (b. 1976) is a Russian director and producer born In Murmansk. From 1994 to 1997 she studied at the Academy of Aerospace Engineering in St. Petersburg, before she went on to study at the University of Culture and Art in the same city. She still works in St. Petersburg, and has won over 30 international prizes for her work.