AYKA

Ayka, played by the great Samal Yeslyamova, breaks out of the birth house, leaving her newborn behind. She does it out of sheer necessity. Soon, she has inflamed breasts and bleeding in her abdomen. Her everyday life is already an incredible challenge: the flat on Moscow's outskirts is narrow, dark, loud, crammed full of illegal immigrants from Kyrgyzstan; one job's gone, the other is slaving away for no money on the chicken conveyor belt in the backyard. But Ayka needs money, she has to pay it back, her creditors are relentless, the big city in any case. Sergey Dvortsevoy, who has given up documentary filming for ethical reasons, dedicates himself to this unforgettable female figure who is representative for all of the forgotten "at the bottom". The camera is so close to Ayka as if it wanted to caress and comfort her. At the same time, Dvortsevoy portrays a society in which the lives of individual dogs are more valuable than those of humans. Around 100 minutes of an almost unimaginable "normality" pass by, until Ayka finally cries. BW