Women and the masculine universes of cinema: from director Shepitko to Nadezhda's protagonism

Abstract

This article seeks to highlight the work of Ukrainian-born Russian director Larisa Shepitko (1938-1979) through her three full-length films, Wings (1966), You and Me (1971) and Ascent (1977), made before her untimely death in 1979. By analysing these works, we will try to highlight the central and unique role of the filmmaker as a woman in dealing with themes such as war, giving them a human rather than ideological look. At the same time, we will realise that personal and artistic expression can contradict and go beyond what the gender stereotype establishes. This is evident in the protagonist of Wings (1966), a former pilot and heroine of the Second World War, who is looking for another path for her life in middle age. The analysis is made with the help of authors Edgar Morin, Anais Nin, Judith Butler, Simone Weil and Lígia Amândio, who bring us closer not only to Shepitko's themes but also to the approach to the feminist question in a broad sense.