Marina (Olga Dihovichnaya), a social worker who specialises in cases of family abuse, is married to the ultra-conventional and caring Ilya (Roman Merinov), while engaging in routine adultery with their friend Valery (Sergei Golyudov). One night, she is picked up and raped by a group of police, who seem to enjoy this as a fairly regular occurrence. Intent on revenge, she tracks down the lead policeman Andrei (Sergei Borisov) to his apartment, but instead begins an unexpected relationship with him. But this controversial subject hides deeper realities. The film is less a portrait of institutional corruption than a social and psychological study of the new Russia, the haves and the have-nots, those confined to an empty middle-class world, and an apparently unreformable ‘underworld’ (the world of Marina’s clients), of which the police themselves seem to be part. Beautifully paced and directed, the performances by Dihovichnaya (who co-wrote the script) and Borisov exhibit an unusual degree of identification and insight. - Peter Hames, BFI London Film Festival
Winner, Golden Alexander for Best Film, Thessaloniki international film festival
Winner, Crystal Arrow for Best Film, Les Arcs European Film Festival
