Grand prix du public et Prix Arte aux Rencontres internationales de cinéma à Paris 2003
Prix Don Quichotte, prix spécial du jury et prix oecuménique au Fstival de Karlovy Vary, 2003 Grand Prix du festival des festivals de Saint-Pétersbourg, 2003
DVD with subtitles
Editor : Blaq Out
Plot synopsis
The film tells about the life of a granny, the ‘babusia’, who raised her children, her grandchildren and the neighbour’s kids in a small Russian village. Now all of them have grown up, have made their careers, and have secured a comfortable life in the city. In many respects the achievement of such a lifestyle was assisted by the money the children received after the sale of the Babusia’s country house.
It would seem all is well, except that Babusia has nowhere to go. None of the children seems to dispose fully of the property they ‘own’ or is really free to do what they want: one depends on the husband, the other on the mistress, the third lives in Moscow without a residence permit. Babusia is taken from one house to the other, from one apartment to the next, handed around like an unnecessary, shabby object. Despite this, Babusia finds the strength to perform a miracle on her dumb grand-daughter, to whom she returns her ability to speak. The heroine herself is almost deprived words, which underlines her similarity to the icon of Mary the Virgin. The casting of a non-professional actress for the role it quite justified: she is an old woman with expressive, spiritual features.
Source : www.kinokultura.com