Russian student of Prague Film School may become an Oscar nominee

The heroine of Daria Kashcheeva’s cartoon “Electra” turns into a plastic Barbie and experiences an antique heroine complex

A campaign to nominate films for the Oscars is starting around the world. Russia was not crossed off the lists, but through the efforts of Nikita Mikhalkov and his film academy, it removed itself. They refused to nominate our film in the “Best International Film” category voluntarily, without prior consultation with members of the Russian Oscar committee, a year ago. Director Pavel Chukhrai resigned as its director in protest.

In fact, we are left with the ruins of the Oscar committee that existed in the bowels of the Mikhalkov Film Academy. But life does not stand still, and last year Yakut filmmakers – brother and sister Maxim and Evgenia Arbugaev – with the documentary film “Exit”, filmed in Chukotka, were nominated for an Oscar from Great Britain and were among the nominees.

Now Daria Kashcheeva, a student at the famous Prague Academy of Arts (FAMU), can apply for the animation nomination. She studies at the Department of Animation and Experimental Theater of the Faculty of Film and Television, and several years ago she lived in Russia, where she came from Dushanbe. Daria studied music in Moscow, took her first steps in animation, and then with her husband Alexander Kashcheev she went to Prague and entered a Czech film school. Her husband is studying to become an editing director.

Daria’s 14-minute cartoon “Daughter” was presented in the 2020 Oscar nomination for “Best Animated Short Film” from the Czech Republic, thanks to its victory at the Swiss Fantoche film festival and in Annecy, France. “The Daughter” was included in the Oscar shortlist along with the film “He Can’t Live Without Space” by Russian director and two-time Oscar nominee Konstantin Bronzit. A little earlier, Daria received the student Oscar, which is also awarded by the American Film Academy.

“Daughter” was a bachelor’s thesis and was filmed with a hand-held camera. She talks about the misunderstanding between a father and his daughter, who is like a wounded bird from lack of love. There were a lot of personal experiences in that story. Daria shot the new 26-minute film “Electra” differently – she didn’t want to repeat herself, without looking back at her past. Not only dolls are involved here, but also live actors who resemble dolls, and vice versa. Daria called her film a wild visual poem in the genre of rock-pop-surreal drama. It’s surprising that Elektra was born in parallel with the Hollywood project Barbie, which broke all records in America.

Daria also has Barbie on her screen. The main character turns into her. And her childhood friends who came to her birthday party were also plastic beauties. From time to time, some idea floats in the air, and then in one year films are released that are united by it. As in “The Daughter,” everything here is filled with fears and hidden desires, to which is added the quite ancient “Electra complex.” It’s as if a ten-year-old girl lives inside an adult woman. As Yevtushenko wrote: “… and everyone is the grave of the child he once was.” Elektra cannot get rid of the pain of her relationship with her parents, and the director sends the viewer into the depths of the subconscious. The heroine remembers her birthday when she turned ten years old, and it was then that her father, the dentist Agamemnon, left the family. And he gave her Barbie dolls, and we know what they mean to girls. Elektra herself becomes a human-sized plastic Barbie, as in the Hollywood blockbuster of the same name. And somewhere nearby there is Ken. Everything that happened in childhood accompanies Electra in the adult world, and the absence of her father affects her relationships with men.

“Electra” participated in the La Cinef student competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival and was shortlisted for the BAFTA student competition. In September, Daria Kashcheeva received the prize for best short film according to IMDbPro at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world in Toronto. With this film she will defend herself at a Czech film school and set off on her own voyage.