This film is a prequel to the director's 2012 documentary drama "Anton is Here, Very Close." It tells the story of the lives of parents of autistic children, the lives of those without whom these children cannot survive. It is about deep and sincere feelings, about how a person accepts tragic circumstances, makes a choice where love and everyday sorrow are transformed into that great happiness that is born from a Destiny accepted by the soul and the heart.
"Editing and finishing it was hard work," writes Liubov Arkus, "but I was driven by the thought that humanity could do without my other films, but this one in particular is something people really need right now.
The film was not granted a distribution visa in Russia, yet it stands out as an essential work. Lyubov Arkus films the parents of these "different" children; each gesture is a victory, each day a trial.
It's not about heroism, but about everyday love, the kind that transforms pain into light.
The filmmaker observes modest lives, yet ones of overwhelming intensity: the camp on the shores of Lake Onega, the heat, the fatigue, the laundry by hand, the errands in the village. On the surface, a vacation; In reality, an invisible ascent, a struggle against the glass walls of the outside world.
In this universe, a smile, a step, a recited poem become fundamental events.
Lyubov Arkus films at soul level. His camera, carried by cinematographer Alisher Khamidkhodjaev, is always "there, very close": so discreet that we forget it.
One father, Misha, confides: "If my daughter dies before me, it will be easier—we won't lock her up." Another, Viktor, says: "We were deprived of the right to be proud of our children. Our happiness is that they can go to a regular school." Parents Are There, Very Close is a film about acceptance, about the repeated choice of love despite everything. He preaches neither pity nor courage, but fidelity to reality, that rarest form of tenderness.
"There is no other happiness," writes Lyubov Arkus, "than love born of the acceptance of destiny."
