Ayka

I saw this film , in gala opening of Cairo film festival , held in Egypt Its a film about the suffering of a helpless young woman...how to survive in a country she knows nothing about ...illegaly working and living in it... On so many levels the story line is moving...but my comment was why all the excessive details..and long scnes repeating the same thing over and ober It was more of a documentary film.... My second comment was the overdose of blood ...it needed to tone down abit in this regard Some people who watched it felt that the director did not utilse the story well... Also the actress ( who won best actress in Cannes film festival 2018) had the same expresion almost all the film..not much of acting as much as the story its self that deserved a prize

We see a film that makes love to questions our souls seldom ask. The pain of attachment whispers to those of us finding love sacred, until we are all alone screaming in torment's silence.

A woman in Moscow attempting the forbidden, crossing the bridge of survival in the ice and snow of human apathy. As we are there with her, helplessness unflowering shock, the garden of our selfishness wants us to leave this immersion, are we drowning or escaping...Although we are the prisoner of our own denial, we would beg to lose the shackles of the woman in this film. Samal graces the river of my senses with a waterfall of paralysis. A rainbow of emotion awaits you. Become the fire of the sunrise. Or the darkness before the dawn. Fire does not burn. It illuminates. A film that blinds, that you may truly see and feel. Close to home...

Millions of migrants have been living in Moscow since mid 2000s. They take all kinds of work and receive wages that seem humiliating even to native Russians who are themselves mostly paid worse than anywhere in Europe. This movie is a well executed attempt to relive one of their mostly invisible lives, consciously ignored by both government and general public. This might be the only feature movie that puts some harsh, Dardenne-style light onto this part of life in Russia. It presents no answers or ideas, not even in a metaphorical way (almost). Instead it follows an indebted girl fighting with herself and recognizable features of modern Moscow: alienation, hypocrisy, absence of rule of law, acute social stratification. No person in the movie looks too horrible or too humane. The environment of the city however seems to be the thing that keeps everybody in a sort of struggling motion, depreciating hopes and turning them into little nightmares that further dissolve or turn into silent tragedies. No overdramatisation or extra lipstick is present however. Definitely something to watch.

With 'Ayka', director Sergei Dvortsevoy has proven to be a contemporary master of the classic impetus of Russian art: depicting the depths of human suffering, despair, and the lengths at which one might go to simply remain alive. Leading actress Samal Yeslyamova goes beyond mere acting and gloriously succeeds in telling her story through minimal dialogue and maximal emotional performance. The story does stumble a bit throughout the first act, but it is sufficiently augmented by a gripping third act and an emotionally draining ending.

Depressing depiction of the miserable life of the illegal immigrants in Moscow. Hardly any serious acting, many vulgar scenes, too much blood, and tiring move of the camera. Should have been some kind of a documentary, not a movie. I wonder how the hell it got so many awards and nominations. Being a movie fan for some decades, I can say with confidence now that minimum the 2/3 of any outsider movie with many awards and nominations are rubbish. Don't waste your time unless you are of the heavy cultural kind of person that applauds the below average films "because you found quality and hidden meanings" that the rest of us missed.