Civil Status (2005)

A brilliant observational documentary filmed at the Civil Registry office in St. Petersburg, where people come to have births, marriages, divorces and deaths registered. 'It’s like a theatre here', one says in the beginning of the film, and it indeed is, the Theater of Life. The young women working in the office have a job that shifts from being verbally attacked and called idiots, to situations where they are subject to flirt, or where they master the happy ceremony of marriage. Faces, joy, sorrow, fun, despair... It’s all very well composed, rhythmical, with atmosphere conveyed, and lives up to what a documentary should be: multilayered and universal. And about Life.

If you liked Civil Status, you might also like…

88% match

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me

2023

86% match

Ex Libris: The New York Public Library

2017

85% match

Come See Me in the Good Light

2025

81% match

The Class of ‘92

2013

77% match

Directed by John Ford

1971

76% match

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

2000

68% match

Naqoyqatsi

2002

66% match

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction

2013

65% match

28 Up

1984

60% match

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

2006

60% match

My Mom Jayne

2025

60% match

To Kill a Tiger

2023

60% match

The Curious Birth of Benjamin Button

2009

60% match

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

2019

60% match

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

2013

60% match

Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream

2013

60% match

The Curse of the Dragon

1993

60% match

National Gallery

2014

60% match

Don't F*#% With John Wick

2015

60% match

A Toxic Love Story

2026