Rental Event: Laura Taler 2 Films 30 Years: the village trilogy + Matryoshka Crush

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Laura Taler 2 Films 30 Years: the village trilogy + Matryoshka Crush

A special screening celebrates 30 years of Laura Taler’s award-winning filmmaking through two acclaimed works. Blending choreography, cinema, song, and performance, Taler creates films haunted by place and shaped by an Eastern European past that is dusty, elusive, and tinged equally by absurd humour and longing.

The program pairs the village trilogy, a poetic exploration of displacement and the search for home, with Matryoshka Crush, a darkly funny meditation on yearning, identity, and transformation. Together, these landmark films showcase a distinctive artistic voice that has resonated with audiences and critics for three decades.

Followed by a Q&A with Laura Taler

the village trilogy (1995)

Told through the bodies of eight dancers, “the village trilogy” is a moving and poetic portrayal of the search for home. The film alludes to the millions of people uprooted through emigration in the past century while reinterpreting the physical characteristics of early cinema. Heralded by Dance International Magazine as marking the beginning of the dancefilm boom in Canada, “the village trilogy” has been continually screened internationally over the last 30 years. In 2002, Los Angeles Times’ critic Lewis Segal wrote: “For depth of feeling, photographic sensitivity and movement invention, the central (duet) portion of Laura Taler’s 1995 ‘the village trilogy’ may be the most memorable footage in the festival. …[H]er mastery of choreography and direction is unquestioned.” Awards: Cinedance Award for Best Canadian Dancefilm, Moving Pictures Best Experimental Film, Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival Gold Hugo, Short Subject Experimental, Chicago International Film Festival

Matryoshka Crush (2025)

Poison, exorcism, gender trouble, song and dance intermingle in this darkly funny and disturbing tale of intense yearning. When a series of adorable monsters reveal themselves near an old tavern, their ordinary acts transform into a chain of micro-disobediences. Told entirely through song, dance, and action, “Matryoshka Crush” straddles dancefilm, contemporary art video and personal narrative. Like the history of the Matryoshka doll, a symbol of Eastern European culture that can be traced back to the Japanese Fukurama doll, “Matryoshka Crush” magnifies the desire for translation and transformation. It’s a lament to the old world and how we are enmeshed in one another. Ancient stories linger, but “Matryoshka Crush” crushes our crush on narrative conventions, leading to liberation and self-invention.

Cast/Crew Info
Director: Laura Taler | Cast: