Overview: Pale, thin, cold-sweating Pik (Khugaev) teaches literature at the local university to students so indifferent they play cards and take phone calls while he lectures. "The hell with you,” he says, walking out mid-class. It’s unclear just why Pik seems so sickly, though by midpoint we realize he’s a heroin addict in withdrawal. Broke, alienated, shunned by his dealer, he searches for a fix or any other salvation, sharing his bleak thoughts in voiceover. Attractive lensing and spare piano/ambient sound score abet the feature’s melancholy, meditative aura.
Overview: Sandro goes back to her native Ossetia for the funeral of her father and is immediately immersed in the chaos of the ceremony. When she sets foot on the fatherland again, she feels more alienation than a sense of homecoming. She and her brother Geor can feel the crushing weight of an unvoiced truth: Sandro wants to leave forever.