The Concept of Anthropocentrism and Its Representation in the Films of Kira Muratova

This article contributes to current discourse on the distinctive and enigmatic cinematic universe of Kira Muratova. It examines her body of work through the lens of anthropocentrism, identifying key tendencies in the evolution of her worldview. Muratova’s films are inseparable from the historical contexts in which she lived and worked. Her earliest independent productions, created during the Soviet era, were met with censorship, bans, and other forms of suppression. The perestroika period offered a measure of “recompense,” granting her work wider public exposure. Muratova’s artistic freedom reached its peak in independent Ukraine, where she was largely unconstrained in her self-expression. The article proposes a provisional periodization of Muratova’s creative legacy and explores the features of her authorial “cinematic anthropology” across these stages. It foregrounds the dynamic shifts in her interpretation of anthropocentric principles—from early works marked by (neo)modernist traits to later postmodernist films characterized by screen-based explorations of human typologies. Particular attention is given to the verbal discourse of her characters: recurring tautologies are examined through an anthropocentric lens, where language is viewed as fundamentally tied to human nature, activity, and culture. Despite the programmatic eclecticism of her individual films, the study reveals a coherent internal logic that unifies Muratova’s oeuvre.