Directed by Anna Buryachkova, drama, coming of age, 107 min, eng subtitles, 16+
Written by Anna Buryachkova, Marina Stepanska
With Alina Cheban, Zachary Shadrin, Arthur Aliiev, Yelyzaveta Tsilyk, Daria Zhykharska, Daria Malakhova
Tonia is transferring to a new school. Haunted by her abusive past, she is desperate to find protection and a place where she could truly belong. She ends up joining a school gang of tough youngsters. They hang out, roam the post-socialist suburbs of Kyiv, have fun, get in trouble, occasionally they play cruel games, fall in love, while fighting off their loneliness and insecurities.
Far from providing the comfort of ostalgia, this is an unsettling portrait of the young and rebellious, a freshly-told coming-of-age story, conceived by the filmmaker as “a love song to the lost teenagers of the late 1990s who grew up amidst the ruins of the Soviet regime and learned just one rule: if no one loves you, you won’t survive.” The film premiered in September 2023 at the Venice Film Festival.