Details
Irina is an immigrant single mother from Ukraine living in a small Czech town. One day, her son is assaulted and severely injured. While the police investigate the crime, the whole town stands up in solidarity with the mother and son and condemns their Roma neighbors, who are allegedly responsible for the assault. After Irina's son wakes up in hospital, the truth about his incident begins to emerge. However, at the same time, a political campaign is gaining momentum in town, and different actors from media, politics and civil society strategically manipulate reality to their own ends. Truth and lies become difficult to tell apart. As a caring mother trying to make a new life for herself in a foreign country, Irina has to contend with the xenophobia, discrimination, and prejudice around her. Torn between protecting her family and searching for the truth, she is ultimately forced to make a fateful decision.
Accolades
Critics
...'compelling, apprehensive feature debut.'
VARIETY
...'a universal tale about two-class societies, repressed xenophobia and racism...'
CINEUROPA
Meet the Cast
Director's Statement
Both storylines—the mother- son storyline and the individual-society storyline—are intimately intertwined, constantly overlapping and feeding into each other. By painting an emotional portrait of Irina, I wanted to expose the Central European society for which she temporarily becomes a mascot, until eventually winding up as its caricature.
