Denis Shabaev: Together
She is nine years old, lives with her grandmother, her mother is ill and her father, she does not see a lot. This is the background that you pick up gradually as this sensitive, well-made and cleverly thought film goes along with father and daughter on a tour towards the park of Pippi Langstrømpe (Longstocking) in Sweden, a wish for the girl who wants to be strong and independent.
They both have a camera and they film each other inside the car, in the hotel rooms where they stay, the landscape, playgrounds along the road and Pippi’s park – and out comes this wonderful portrait of a girl, who is able to reflect on her own life, formulate what she thinks and hopes for, and at the same time be the little girl, who sits with a toy horse on her lap, misses her grandmother and talks with her father on whether they shall turn around and go back to Moscow – or continue to Pippi Land.
A small conflict in a film that has a lovely sketchy non-formatted character with shaky camera movements, warm moments between the two, a playful journey that is interrupted by the ring of father’s cell phone, and her father asking: Would you like to live with me instead of with grandmother. The film has a wonderful b/w opening – ”you can’t run away from yourself” – and an ending with the girl anticipating/imitating the everyday world she has to go back to. A film with a universal appeal.
Russia, 2014, 52 mins.
Winner of Main Prize at DocuDays UA 2015 in the Docu/Life Category.
