A lost needle, a vanished friend, and a Soviet stairwell that won't let you leave.
Maks, an average resident of the "sovok" area, who together with his childhood friend Zheka goes to one of the many entrances to help buddy inject a dose of heroin. The tension of fear of being noticed leads to Maks losing the syringe, after which Zheka mysteriously disappears. The usual "panelka" entrance is more and more like the other side of hell, because it turns out that getting out of it is not easy. In search of a friend, the fear inside Maks grows as he grows around paranormal phenomena and eventually leads him to his own heroin injection. Then only God.
Direction
Perfilyev turns concrete stairwells into existential torture chambers
Practical Effects
Zero budget, maximum atmosphere — proves location is everything
Acting
Cheban's panic feels uncomfortably authentic
Director
Roman Perfilyev
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
"Sovok" and "panelka" reference specific post-Soviet urban decay — crumbling prefab housing that millions still live in, making the horror deeply grounded in real Russian/Ukrainian experience.
The 20-minute runtime mirrors actual withdrawal timelines — the film itself becomes a compressed detox nightmare where time dilates and space contracts.
UA
