Bury Me Behind the Baseboard

Sergey Snezhkin's 2009 Russian film is adapted from Pavel Sanayev's novel of the same name. At its centre is a small boy growing up inside a constant struggle between his mother and his grandmother. The mother is disorganised but loving; the grandmother has enclosed the child entirely in the name of protecting him. The hardest thing in the film is the way the grandmother turns her love into a form of abuse. Svetlana Kryuchkova's performance does not caricature her; the woman genuinely loves the boy, and that is exactly what makes her unbearable. Verbal humiliation, control built on fear of illness and the constant production of guilt are the film's main material. The child's point of view dominates, which denies the viewer any neutral place to stand. The novel was already widely read in Russia, and the adaptation keeps most of its anger. Who it's for: viewers able to watch a film about psychological violence inside a family. Who it's not for: anyone who wants to stay away from scenes of emotional abuse of a child; the film shows them constantly and directly.