They are really quite good, the two young women who dance in close embrace, one of them Kate Winslet, the other Leo di Caprio. “Titanik” is written on a partition wall and the audience of “Babushki” are in tears, each with a baby in her arms. The house at Tramvayny prospect No. 15 in St. Petersburg is special: it’s a crisis centre for women called “Little Mother”. They are underage orphans themselves, but already mothers. And they have very different stories to tell – about their children’s fathers, the disappearance of their parents or about being a mother. They get to live here together for a year, in this oasis of a society deliberately (almost) without men, a unique opportunity in a Russia more or less devoid of real social institutions. They are supported and protected and prepared for life outside. They don’t have to earn money yet, but they all know how to do it. The film was made by a student of the Moscow VGIK, in precise black and white and with a rare instinct for filmmaking. From the ultrasonic images to the scattered poems (written by one of the young women) – everything comes together in an amazingly delicate whole. It gives you hope. BW
Source : www.dokfestival-leipzig.de
