2024 | Fiction | 97 min. | Russia | 18+
Agnia is a strong-minded woman working in a male-dominated trade – she designs and builds brick stoves. She goes ice-fishing and brings up her son alone. She lives in the Far North. Her apartment house is decrepit but she can't save up for a new apartment because her work is seasonal. She and other residents are entitled to be resettled but Boris, the acting mayor of her town, is in no hurry to do it. When Boris hires Agnia to build a stove at his mansion, she uses him to reach her greatest goal which is to move to a modern flat. And she achieves this in a singular way.
Directors Statement
For me, this story is important principally because it is as personal as possible: I, too, grew up in the Far North, above the Arctic Circle, in a poorly heated house like this one; in winter I wore felt boots inside my flat. It's only now that I realize how difficult it was for my mother to carry everything on her shoulders, yet I never saw her cry, she was always smiling and upbeat even if we had to subsist on noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Women in the Far North always treat limitations as opportunities, raise their children by themselves and give them the best education, they, despite everything, never complain about their life. And my mother's job, just like Agnia's,was unusual for a woman - she worked as a sailor. Even though the lead character lives far from civilization, she becomes an accurate representation of the modern woman, of somebody who is adept at combining all the roles: she is a mother, she is loving and strong at the same time. Nowadays womеn are capable to do literally everything – to build a stove, to build a house, to bring up sons. It was difficult to find the overall visual style for my movie because I wanted it to resemble the heroine, her majestic dignity and her austere simplicity at once. Hence I strived to convey beauty precisely through simplicity of the camerawork as such, through the geometry of each frame, through the lines, the lighting style and the acting style. I wanted to clear off everything superfluous. This was probably the hardest task because simplicity is always difficult to achieve – one can easily slide into banality and clichés instead. I hope we have avoided this trap. As for discoveries I made, I'll share one: initially Agnia was to build an ornate tiled stove, but during pre-production it became clear that a stove was beautiful by itself, without tiles or other decorations. And now I strive for simplicity in my own life - to me that was the most important discovery. Almost immediately after the filming ended, the news came that people were enduring cold in their unheated flats. I was sent videos of people picketing the streets to ask for help. I take it as important evidence showing that my movie is relevant and necessary.
Director: Pavla Stratulat
Producers: Sabina Eremeeva and Dmitriy Litvinov
Сast: Evgeniya Gromova, Sergey Gilev, Alexandra Vinogradova, Alexandra Babaskina, Nil Bugayev and Mikhail Troynik
Studios: Studio SLON and Planeta-inform
