- year : 2021
- country : Russia, Armenia
- timing : 97:42'
- genre : fiction film
- producer : Armen Hakopian,Dmitry Tarkhov
written by Armen Hakopian, Dmitry Tarkhov, Gevorg Markosyan
produced by Alexander Hakopian, Ilya Sherstobitov
DoP Gevorg Markosyan
music by Andrey Romanov
sound by Alexey Badygov
editor Natalia Kucherenko
production designer Artem Kupina
cast: Julia Aug, Alexey Guskov, Igor Balalaev, Dmitry Mukhamadeev, Sergey Uustalu, Alexander Rychkov, Denis Prutov
production company: H'Akopian Cinema Production \ X-Soul Production
Our time. A comet is approaching planet Earth, bound to destroy it. The government is disbanded, communications and transport links are all down. The world is in a state of chaos. The main characters, Anna and Andrei, who live in a small provincial town, continue to wait for their sons, who left the town for Moscow 9 years ago. They dream of facing the encounter with their family. The sons arrive, but a real family reunion costs the characters far more than they expected. The comet is getting closer, and we must have time to say everything. But the most important words turn into grievances accumulated over the years, hidden desires, skeletons in the closet that do not allow them to sit down at the table. Will the characters be able to remain a true family in their last hours or did the apocalypse happen long before the comet fell?
- Russian Film Festival "Window to Europe" (2021, Russia, Vyborg)
- Festival du Cinéma Russe à Honfleur (2021, France, Honfleur)
- Spirit of Fire International Debut Film Festival, Prize for the best Russian debut film "Flowers of Taiga Hope", Prize named after Alexander Abdulov for the best male role - Alexey Guskov, Prize named after Alexander Abdulov for the best female role - Julia Aug (2022, Russia, Khanty-Mansiysk)
- NIKA National Film Award for 2021, Longlist (2022, Russia, Moscow)
- Festival del Cinema di Castel Volturno (2022, Italy, Castel Volturno)
Director’s statement
This story was gradually developing and unravelling for me since my very childhood. The barracks of the Nizhny Novgorod region, communal apartments, constant accidents. As a child, I could not listen to all this, and my brother and I locked ourselves in and came up with “our own movie”. In that constructed world we broke away from our own reality and created our own unique universe. I do not know the people that we will not touch with this story.
As time went on, we developed and quite successfully created our own business, in which we succeeded. And then my brother said: “We dreamed about it so much, now go and do it”. I found a team of like-minded people, we reworked one little-known play, into which I poured in all my childhood memories, this eternal feeling of constant trash and constant expectation of the end of the world. I even incorporated the sense of smells into the narrative.
The dramatic line of the film is very closely tied with the word “family” - the relationship, intertwined with love and hate all in one, is so typical for our country. The characters of the film are waiting for their children and live through another – familiar – apocalypse. And the final apocalypse, like the previous ones, does not frighten or surprise them. In fact, for them, everything goes on as usual.
In the colors of the film and its solutions, there is a new aesthetic, something reminiscent of the Soviet era. The characters, brought to life by Julia Aug and Alexei Guskov, became a product of long studies and method acting. They lived out their roles and thus brought genuine volume to the story.
ABOUT THE FILM DIRECTOR:
Armen Hakopian was born on 02.11.1987 in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 2004 graduated from the Shakhunskaya Gymnasium named after A.S.Pushkin.
FILMOGRAPHY:
2021 - "Needed to die for you to come", full-length film \ debut
BIOGRAPHY:
Dmitry Tarkhov was born on 26.06.1987 in Kotlas, Arkhangelsk region, Russia. In 2010 graduated from the Yaroslavl State Theatre Institute. In 2017 graduated from the Moscow School of New Cinema.
FILMOGRAPHY:
2021 - "Needed to die for you to come", full-length film
2019 - "I need you", full-length film
2017 - "Chita", short film
