A corporate charity project becomes an emotional demolition derby.
A large metallurgical company, where Muscovite Roman Mukhin works, takes care of an orphanage in Khanty-Mansiysk. The company's management recommends that Roman take a child from this shelter into his care. Elena, Roman's wife, is not against it - she thinks that another child (the couple has an older son, Oleg) will strengthen their marriage. The choice falls on 11-year-old Marta Chemesova. Marta does not want to leave Khanty-Mansiysk, because her grandmother lives there, who loves her granddaughter very much, but, realizing that she herself is no longer able to take care of her, she gives the go-ahead for guardianship. Marta moves to Moscow. At first, all the participants in the story are full of enthusiasm, however, despite a joint trip to India, where Marta always dreamed of going, becoming a real family turns out to be more difficult than Elena and Roman could have imagined...
Acting
Pegova and Tsyganov weaponize awkward silences.
Direction
Barkalaya never lets you forget who's performing for whom.
Writing
India trip as false hope—devastating structural choice.
Director
Tina Barkalaya
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Khanty-Mansiysk to Moscow represents a vast cultural/economic gulf in modern Russia rarely explored in cinema.
The metallurgical company's 'CSR' initiative frames the entire narrative as capitalist extraction applied to human souls.
IN
RU
