Civil Status

The staff of the “Wedding Palace” – the Saint Petersburg vital records office – faces emotionally-charged events on a daily basis: registrations of births, solemnization of marriages, the filing of petitions for divorce or requests for death certificates. The highs and lows of the lives of the inhabitants of this Russian port city are recorded in neat files stored in filing cabinets and archived in businesslike categories. The fact that such events are often chaotic and not suited to emotionless registration is clearly shown: people burst into tears, fight out their final quarrels or vent their frustrations as surviving relatives, all in the offices of the registrars. Recalcitrant spouses try to hold up a divorce at the last moment, while in an adjoining room a marriage is taking place or a newborn registered. The female registrars soothe their clients, or reprimand them, calmly put up with attempted seductions and fits of rage, all the while wading stoically through confused statements and interminable forms. This observational film in timeless black-and-white could have been shot in the 1950s, but as we can see from the computers and printers sticking out from under the piles of paperwork, it is in fact more recent. Bureaucracy and emotion come together at this completely normal yet highly charged place.