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

Trailer

Watch the trailer

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 - 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)

Back to the section: Special: Belarus