One Day / Один день

2017 | Fiction | 23 min. | Russia

The female protagonist is 40, the male one is 30. She is trying to adopt a baby. He has recently been released out of jail and he is planning to start a new life. They accidentally get acquainted when he is applying for a job, and she helps him out. The protagonists spend the night together, eating out and drinking at the woman's expense. She is demanding understanding and closeness from a stranger. He is looking for peace and rest.

Directors Statement

Where does a man's loneliness lead to? How does he feel it? And how does he try to overcome it? The questions of loneliness, misunderstanding, isolation and impossibility to find the right life guides have always been of my interest. When I started writing the plot, I was thinking that the story must be true-life. It doesn’t mean that it should be realistic but the emotions and feelings the heroes experience must be real and meet a response among the audience. The story can be made up but it is important that feelings are familiar to everyone and every scene has its own emotional key. I wanted my film to be “lively”. Two people meet. She is a grown-up woman who doesn’t have a family. He has recently got out from jail. They both feel that their lives are out of tune with social standards. When I was creating the female protagonist’s image I took some situations from life. I asked myself: how does a woman behave when she feels lonely, when she is flirting, when she is seeking for the understanding from a stranger, when she is rejected? The way she speaks, moves, and looks. As for the male protagonist - it is a generalized character. My aim was not to make him look too true and show a real criminal. I wanted to show a man who got lost. A man who doesn’t have a plan what to do, as if he is in a fog. He only has instincts left and he acts according to them and doesn’t think if it is bad or not. That’s the way he feels. That’s what he is used to. They have spent one day together but either of them is still by him - (and her - ) self.

Director: Daria Markina

Producer: Daria Markina

Сast: Yulia Gomanyuk and Vladimir Morozov