Celebrated Kazakh filmmaker Sergey Dvortsevoy (Tulpan, 2008) returns with an unflinching and amoral journey that challenges audiences to understand his near-silent protagonist’s sacrifice. After abandoning her newborn mere minutes after delivery, Ayka (Cannes Best Actress winner Samal Yeslyamova) returns to work at a stomach-churning chicken-processing plant. She suffers from severe postpartum depression that has left her numb and confused. When the plant foreman announces that no one is to be paid for their weeks of work, Ayka must return to the cold streets of Moscow, desperate for money. Without papers or even a stable address, the resilient immigrant accepts demeaning jobs in hopes of repaying a loan shark. As her willpower drops with the temperature, is it only a matter of time before she is abandoned and forgotten, too?

In competition for the FIPRESCI Award.

Director Sergey Dvortsevoy