“A Beautiful Tragedy” is a documentary about 15 year old Oksanna who follows her mother’s dream to see her become a prima ballerina. She decides to sacrifice her youth and devote nine years of her childhood to a ballet school in Russia.
We encounter jealousy and beauty, and beauty comes with a price: most of the girls in the school are anorectic. From the age of eight or nine until they are grown-ups they see their parents twice a year. For most children who attend the school, ballet represents their only chance in life for a future. Every year 500 children will come to audition. 30 students will be accepted. They have beautiful dreams and work unbelievably hard to achieve their goal. After nine years of training 30 students will graduate. One or two will get a job.
Oksanna’s mood changes from hope to despair. She wants to give up, but pulls herself together every morning after nights of crying, desperate to fulfill her mother’s dream.
The ballet is beauty, but it also carries an implicit expression of the brutality and the demand for subordination in Russian society.
NFI.no wrote:Jealousy and beauty at a ballet school in Russia. Oxanna (16) wants to become a prima ballerina, but the price is a sacrificed youth. Her mood is changing from hope to despair. She wants to give up but there is an imperative that makes her pull herself together every morning after nights of crying; she must fulfill her mothers dream. The ballet is beauty, but it also carries an implicit expression of the brutality and the demand for subordination in Russian society.
Oksana Skorik (15) is a talented dancer. We follow her from the age of 14 until she is 16. She attends Perms Order of Honour Choreographic School, far east in Russia. She sees her parents twice a year. Life is about one thing: dance. Russian ballet is exceptional. It is a distinct part of Russian self-consciousness. Dance is taken to higher levels of perfection than anywhere else. Ballerina tells the intriguing story of the sacrifices young dancers make in order to maintain the position of ballet within Russian culture. Of five hundred children selected for the annual audition at our school, 30 are accepted. They are 9 years old. They have 9 years ahead - focusing on expressing beauty through body movements. Fat is the enemy. The girls live on the edge of anorexia. For Oksana the ballet is her opportunity to free herself from poverty. She dreams about the ballerinas life on the sunny side of society. She wants to see the world and to be admired by audiences. But the majority of the girls spend 9 years at school, suffering pain - only to realize that the dream will not come through. Therefore the competition between the girls is strong. Oksana is at the lower ranks of the pecking order among the girls. Also the teachers dislike her. She is talented, but socially isolated. She is writing home saying she cant take it any longer. She wants to kill herself. Her mother insists that she continues. Oksana is her hope for a more prosperous life. She has gambled and put her bet on her only valuable card; Oksana's talent. She can not allow the child to leave school. She started stretching her daughter when she was three weeks old so that she would get a long and slim body - fit for ballet. Now Oksana must fulfill her dream. Oksana is 168 cm and she weights 38 kg. Like several other girls she does not menstruate. Her body lacks the lipidis needed to build hormones for normal development of the body of a girl in her teens. In stead of eating supper she calls her mother for comfort.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2161317/
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