I Won't Come Back

Anya grew up in an orphanage and has made a place for herself at university. Just as her life is falling into order she is accused of possessing drugs. To hide from the police she enters a residential institution under a false identity. There she meets Kristina, a few years younger. The two set out together to look for the girl's grandmother. Ilmar Raag's film was shot in Russian and is a road picture that crosses the country end to end. The telling rescues nobody and sells no hope; it offers no way out beyond the two girls holding on to each other. Polina Pushkaruk and Vika Lobacheva take the leads. The landscape is wide and the tone is under threat throughout.