Rural hinterland. Russia.

A father and daughter live in a van/camper.

They constantly wander from one village to another, among bleak, gray, barren, uninhabited landscapes.

We do not know their names, not even their past; we understand that the girl's mother is dead and she keeps a funerary urn with her.

Their business is as follows: the girl sees movies on the computer and saves them to DVD and then shows them in the villages: they set up a big screen, sell tickets and drinks.

They manage to do everything in the van, even the shower they set up outside with a removable tent.

Essential dialogues between them, but something very strong binds them.

When a boy during a screening approaches the teenager, she rejects his invitation while being attracted to his motorcycle.

He follows them, wanting to go with them, but the man pushes him away.

The father's approach to a woman leads the girl to go with the young man on his motorcycle, but perhaps only in response to the parent's behavior, who does not hesitate to go after her.

An impenetrable rigor holds them together albeit in the knowledge that their business is destined to end.

For the boy on the motorcycle, movies are boring, and when the Internet arrives for everyone, their craft will end as well, the girl is aware of this: for now still a drive-in or outdoor cinema, when already the boys gather in the attics to watch porn.

In the land of nowhere, where different dialects are spoken between north, central, and south, between Russian, Georgian, and Ukrainian, the language that seems to unite everyone is cinema, an activity still to be shared, though destined to disappear.

Few words, boundless landscapes, crumbling houses, poverty and a desire to escape.

An intimate and restless road movie, essential, sophisticated and poetic as only art cinema can be: raw, laconic yet explicit atmosphere.

Narrative hermeticism and interpretations by subtraction make the faces hypnotic and although nothing is attractive everything is artistic enchantment.

26-Nov-2023 by Beatrice