Section: Special: Belarus

Nastoyashtshaya Amerikanka

The Real American

Darya Zhuk
Belarus, USA, 2015, 13 Min

Arrogance rarely remains free of consequences: sixteen-year-old Alya spends a year with a host family in America. The supposedly cosmopolitan host parents want to impart their values on the girl from the former Soviet Union, an experiment that gets out of hand at the youngster's birthday party.

Turnstyle TV LLC

A real American, and that's ultimately what Alya strives to become, needs to shave her legs. In this regard American tolerance proves immovable, a point emphatically driven home. Alya subsequently takes this attitude to heart in a rather unconventional way, in a satire that sees director Darya Zhuk take a humorous look at the cultural paternalism and prudery of a society which nevertheless perceives itself as universal. In the process she scrutinizes and unmasks the hypocrisy of this American family. MM

Filmformat
DCP | Farbe / colour
Drehbuch
Darya Zhuk, Guy Cimbalo
Kamera
Jessica Bennett
Ton
Arcady Noskov
Schnitt
Niv Klainer
Ausstattung
Alina Smirnova
Musik
Nicholas Britell
Darsteller
Tamara Sevunts, John Rothman, Carolyn McCormick
Produzent
Mitchell Waxman, Victoria Aleksanyan
Produktion
Turnstyle TV LLC
Kontakt
Turnstyle TV LLC
330 Wythe Avenue 8d
11211 New York
United States
+1.64.67.52.14 94
darya.zhuk@gmail.com
Darya Zhuk

Darya Zhuk - born in 1980 in Minsk, Belarus. At age 16 she moved to the USA to study direction at Columbia University. She received numerous awards and grants, including the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant. Currently she is working on completing her first feature CHRUSTAL, set in her home town Minsk.

Movies
THE AIR INSIDE HER (2011, short)
WAX (2013, short)
EAT THE TOURISTS (2014, short)
WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU (2015, short)