Extinction review - forbidding portrait of a self-proclaimed Soviet country
(The Guardian Russia)

Are the bullies actually the good guys in this video essay about the independent state of Transnistria, in eastern Moldova?Salomé Lamas´s video essay Extinction, shot in forbidding monochrome, is an opaque meditation on the self-proclaimed and officially unrecognised independent state of Transnistria, in eastern Moldova, bordering Ukraine.The title appears to allude to the extinction that Transnistria is fighting against and the film ends with a dedication: `To all the unrecognised and unnoticed territories that lie on the margins of legitimacy: lacking diplomatic recognition or UN membership, inhabiting a world of shifting borders, visionary leaders and forgotten peoples.` A quixotic if naive view of the eternal rightness and benevolence of secessionism: I can´t help visualising the Confederate flag. Continue reading...