Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning, Author at Lossi 36

“Going to Abkhazia is like stepping into a fairytale — it’s impossible”: Maradia Tsaava’s film “Water Has No Borders”

September 5, 2023

Xandie Kuenning reviews Maradia Tsaava's 2021 film "Water Has No Borders," a documentary more about the filmmaker than its ostensible topic

Poems of oppression and liberation: “I Set It Free: An Anthology of Georgian Women’s Contemporary Poetry”

August 22, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews the 2019 anthology "I Set It Free," a collection emphasising contemporary poetry by Georgian women

A snapshot of Russian emigrés in New York: Reviewing “The Funeral Party” by Ludmila Ulitskaya

August 11, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews "The Funeral Party," Ludmila Ulitskaya's first full-length novel to be translated into English

Isolation, paranoia, and cruelty on a daily basis: “Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania” by Margo Rejmer

August 1, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews "Mud Sweeter Than Honey," an oral history of Communist Albania into the 1990s

A meandering look at love, culture-shock, and anecdotal history: “American Fairy Tales” by Dato Turashvili

July 26, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews "American Fairy Tales," a semi-fictional account of Dato Turashvili's experiences in the United States

The ins and outs of a hotel full of monarchs, spies, and refugees: “Estoril” by Dejan Tiago-Stanković

July 18, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews "Estoril," a Serbian novel about spycraft, exile, and family in neutral Portugal during World War II

A meditation on death during Georgia’s violent 1990s: “The Pass of the Persecuted” by Guram Odisharia

June 23, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews "The Pass of the Persecuted," Guram Odisharia's personal account of crossing the Sakeni-Chuberi mountain pass during the 1992–93 Georgian-Abkhazian conflict

Resisting and re-existing: “What does it mean to be post-Soviet?: Decolonial Art from the Ruins of the Soviet Empire” by Madina Tlostanova

June 9, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews Madina Tlostanova's seminal work examing how decolonial art can build a new future within post-Soviet states

Magic and harsh realities in East Serbia: “Flotacija” at the goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film

June 5, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews the Serbian documentary "Flotacija," where magic coexists with the harsh reality of a destructive mining industry

Envisioning hope and despair after years of death and destruction: “Atlantis” at the goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film

June 5, 2023

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning reviews "Atlantis," an exploration of what post-war Ukraine could look like, both the good and the bad