kokoko

The film starts on a train, where two women share a compartment: Lisa, a museum curator who returns to St Petersburg; and Vika on her way to visit the northern capital to enjoy the nightlife, booze and sex. These two women are polar opposites in terms of their character and social background, yet they are forced to share the small space of the compartment, and later Lisa’s flat in St Petersburg where Vika finds shelter after her money and documents are stolen. A complex game of attraction and repulsion, of compassion and aggression dominates this relationship. Lisa’s sense of responsibility for the “victim” of a crime turns her into a potential victim of the upheaval that Vika inflicts upon her. On a symbolical level, the film reveals the intelligentsia’s unwillingness to adapt to the new Russia, and the people’s inability to survive without the old-fashioned, good-hearted souls that once upon a time made life in the Soviet Union bearable. The quiet demeanour of Mikhalkova is complemented by the unperturbed Troyanova, the ingenious “provincial” actress from “Yoburg” (Ekaterinburg), who appeared in Vasily Sigarev’s VOLCHOK (2009) and ZHIT (2011). BiB