The subjects of the documentary sometimes filmed themselves

When Elena Laskari first saw Natasha and her 15-year-old daughter Nastya in one of the Moscow hospices, she thought that they were volunteers. Nastya was without a stroller then. Then it turned out that the girl was a hospice ward. No one is called a patient there. All are wards.

Elena Laskari is an experienced documentarian, has made more than 50 films, and is a beautiful, personable person. Natasha and Nastya immediately accepted her offer to become the heroines of the film. The very next day after their agreement, Elena went to visit them.

During the hour and a half that the film runs, we are immersed in the life and relationships of a mother and daughter living in a residential area of ​​Moscow, who, due to illness, is one hundred percent dependent on her mother. Some people found the total immersion frightening, too detailed and too long, but this is the only way to feel the full severity of the life circumstances of this small family.

Mother and daughter are not separated 24 hours a day, naturally they get tired of each other, and sometimes get irritated because of some nonsense that grows to incredible proportions. Natasha says with self-irony that she hasn’t worked for a long time because her daughter requires constant care, she’s used to it and is perhaps even interested in keeping it that way forever. Although we understand that this form of “parasitism” is to some extent destructive for her and deprives her of the opportunity to live her own life happily and freely.

Nastya spends all her time in a small apartment, taking pills by the hour. She is physically unable to be independent. At the same time, Nastya is a modern girl with pink hair who can surf the Internet for hours. She is educated, studies foreign languages, makes progress in Chinese, amazing the tutor. She has her own special world, invisible to outsiders. Nastya draws and dreams of becoming an artist. She is learning the role of Juliet, which she will play in the company of peers with various forms of serious illnesses in a theater studio at a hospice.

Her father was a biker and died young. A lot of time has passed since then, and now the girl is looking for a suitable match for her mother on a dating site. They will settle on a certain Herman, but in the end a completely different man will appear in their lives.

As someone will say during a discussion of the film, he is not Alain Delon. But Natasha is happy when he is around. She is a biker at heart and enjoys racing on a motorcycle. This is probably how she rushed with the wind through the streets with her late husband. And now she appeared on the screen with another man. A phenomenal shot where he, like a king, sits on a motorcycle, and behind him is a happy Natasha.

Nastya herself dreams of someday leaving home, meeting her love and getting married, although she perfectly understands that at any moment something irreparable can happen to her.

Many viewers are overcome with incredible pity for her - so defenseless, when a loving mother suddenly begins to say some unacceptable things to her, even as a joke. It was as if Natasha had been replaced as soon as a new lover appeared. Why does he need such a burden - a strange and sick child, although it is absolutely unclear what he thinks about it.

The film took four years to film. Day after day. It was difficult for everyone. “When you get so close to a family, you almost become a relative or friend of these people. The camera is always nearby. Natasha and Nastya never once told me: “Get out of here.” We have been filming since 2019. When the pandemic started, I couldn’t go to them so as not to expose Nastya to danger, so I gave away my camera. They filmed themselves. The film included two fragments they filmed, when Natasha turns on the lights at 4 am, and when they go up the mountains on a ski lift in Sochi,” recalls Elena Laskari.

The film's heroines went to Sochi with their mother's new friend. He is annoyed, but again it is not clear how he perceives what is happening, how he treats the girl. Doesn't pay attention to the camera. He doesn't seem to care what he looks like. Besides, the director is not around. All yours.

As Elena Laskari will say, Nastya is alive thanks to her mother, and sees her as a support. Over 17 years of endless work and fear for her life, a lot of feelings and unfulfilled desires accumulate, leading to black humor, which an outsider often does not read. Natasha turned out to be brave, agreeing to act in film, not suspecting how her life could be highlighted, giving herself up to the judgment of a variety of people with their own attitudes.

Doctors predicted that Nastya would last until she was 12 years old, then up to 16, now up to 24. She is not going to die. She is 20 years old and wants to live. She has two serious illnesses, which, when superimposed on each other, give an unexpected effect, thanks to which Nastya can walk.

After the film was filmed, she stopped drawing and can no longer hold a brush or pencil. In the final shots, she stands against a wall with graffiti against a background of painted balloons. It seems that she herself created such a festive world. It turned out that it was just a wall in a hospice. But the mermaid and the Viking are her drawings. Professional animators and talented directors Nadya Goldman and Liana Makaryan breathed life into them and gave the documentary a new breath.

“Nastya is a rosebud for me,” says Elena Laskari. She is able to endow those around her with qualities that they may not possess. The fragile girl lives in her own magical world, which the authors tried to capture with the help of animation. This is how an ordinary, crowded house on the outskirts of Moscow turned into a fabulous one.