Young Oksana puts her newly born Denis in a baby box. Sixteen years later she steals him away from a children's home, intent on making amends for her maternal neglect, and to exploit him to earn money in a corrupt legal system.
Acting
Vlasenko's physicality conveys what dialogue cannot.
Direction
Tverdovsky's cold observation refuses easy catharsis.
Cinematography
Moscow's grey bureaucratic spaces as psychological prison.
Director
Ivan I. Tverdovsky
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Baby boxes (окна жизни) are real Russian phenomena, and the film savagely interrogates who truly benefits from such 'merciful' institutions.
The title refers to Denis's rare condition causing insensitivity to pain—metaphorically extended to a whole society numb to exploitation.
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