Two strangers, one tape, zero connection—Russian cinema at its most beautifully bleak.
The plot is not developed; in the film we see a man (he) and a woman (she) who, in fact, are neither connected nor familiar with each other; they casually met in hospital. "She" (Viktoria Tolstoganova) does not see that she is in danger in connection with her plan to use a tape with illegally made recordings as compromising evidence in court. "He" (Il'ia Shakunov, an actor of the Petersburg TYuZ) is a gay translator who, after the random meeting with her, is pursued by her image which frequently pops up in front of him. As a consequence, his relationship with a young boy no longer satisfies him. Both he and she lose sight of the meaning of life, because of their own inability to see others and to see love, as perception relies on proximity instead of distance.
Acting
Shakunov's haunted restraint; you feel his obsession in every silence.
Cinematography
Petersburg as frozen purgatory—every frame aches with isolation.
Director
Mikhail Brashinsky
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Brashinsky was a film theorist before directing; this is his only feature, made when Russian indie cinema was gasping for oxygen post-Soviet collapse.
The title refers to invisible ice—danger you can't see until you're already falling. Neither protagonist recognizes their own frozen state until collision becomes inevitable.
RU
