Change of Fate

In this adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Letter (1927), Kira Muratova posits Maria as the film’s enigmatic heroine—the vulnerable and sentimental wife of a colonial official who is accused of murdering her husband’s friend (and her lover) and subsequently imprisoned throughout the trial. Both Maria’s husband and her lawyer believe her version of events—the killing as an act of self-defense—in a testimony that is convincing and coherent. The unforeseen appearance of a letter, however, arrives to cast doubt on Maria’s original story. Despite this new evidence, the lawyer’s clever defense of Maria results in her acquittal. But the truth that the lawyer unintentionally reveals ultimately leads to a tragedy.

Change of Fate is the first film made by Muratova during perestroika, free from the censors she had been subject to in prior years. The film showcases the director’s distinctive style, which had been evident in earlier films, but here it is concentrated and more refined, with a polyphonic audio texture to accompany the visual style. The film represents Muratova’s first foray into the crime genre, a story type that would increasingly fascinate the filmmaker in later years. The outlandish secondary characters take on a grotesque quality, though it’s not quite the farce that would become Muratova’s central genre in the 1990s. With its themes of betrayal, sexism, and racial prejudice, the film offers a sharp, satirical critique of white supremacy, presenting it in exaggerated, grotesque forms. Rights courtesy of Janus Films.