Bed and Sofa (PG*)

Arriving in Moscow to take up a new job, but with nowhere to stay, Volodya looks up his old army buddy Kolya. Kolya offers him the sofa in the tiny one-room flat he shares with his wife Lyuda, only to have his generosity betrayed a while later when he is away on a business trip. When he returns home, Volodya has moved into the bed, and it’s Kolya’s turn on the sofa. But how satisfactory is this arrangement for Lydua? Has she perhaps only acquired two husbands to cook and clean for?

Once believed lost, the film was rediscovered in the 1970s and has since become regarded as a Russian masterpiece of the silent era, notable for its unusual frankness, naturalistic performances and sympathetic female character.

Bed and Sofa screens here with music by the Electronic & Produced Music Department at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.