They’re really only children, giggling on that merry-go-round – no more than a vision. The reality is different. Not only do they search the garbage in decaying cellars for anything valuable, they live in this filth. This is where they cook their soup, smoke, sniff and shoot up anything they can. Poverty has rarely looked sadder.
Ukrainian director Juri Rechinsky has arranged his film in three chapters, like a triptych. The first is entitled “Childhood” and portrays something these Odessa street kids never had. In the second part, the director travels with one of the kids through snowy landscapes to the village where the boy hopes to find his mother. But just as there was no childhood, there is no home any more. Alcoholism and the cynical and brutal way the villagers treat each other have buried all humanity. In the third part, “Love”, an almost biblical cadence is added in the story of Dennis and Anna. The two, who are so drugged up their words are no more than a slur, live in a ruin and are expecting a child. They share a pair of shoes – it’s all they can afford.
In his debut film director Rechinsky aims the camera at those who were cast out by Ukrainian society and, what’s more, for whom no opportunity to return is provided. He follows through, staying in contact over several years, sparing the audience nothing – just a nightmare from beginning to end.
Cornelia Klauß