Gela Chitava

Lesha Shultes, a pickpocket, leads the ordinary life of an average urban creature. The only extraordinary thing about Shultes is that he carries a little notebook with him and notes down everything. This minimalist drama of a 'small man' in a metropolis delivers an existential message with a distinct Russian flavour.

Vitya, a 40-year-old taxi driver who aspired to become a writer in his youth, leaves this dream after a series of failures. He lives quietly in a communal apartment with idle neighbors, delivers hated passengers all over Moscow every day. One day Vitya decides to pretend to be the mysterious Viktor Pelevin.

In Russia, an introverted father and his teenage daughter live on the road in a van that contains their entire life, including the equipment for a travelling cinema: the source of their meager income. Povolotsky builds on the undeniable art of the long take, on both the scale of the imposing landscapes and the tight interior of their cramped vehicle. The nameless father and daughter rove around the extremities of their vast country, from south to north. On its margins, the pulse of independent drifters who endure and resist.