Cast

Karolina Gruszka, Aleksiej Filimonov

Film description

Sanya (Aleksei Filimonov) has never heard of the fifth commandment and kills his wife for the red-haired Sasha (Karolina Gruszka). Why? Because he wants the beautiful girl's oxygen.

Ivan Vyrypayev's film is an adaptation of his controversial play Oxygen, where the Decalogue was presented in rap style, and which was declared by critics a manifesto of "anaerobic art". A love story is told in a modern, sometimes poetic and sometimes kitschy form, combining nearly all genres of popular culture. There is romance here, drama, horror and a criminal story to boot. An ironic parable divided into ten word and music scenes which combine spoken text with music, it resembles a video clip, with references to the aesthetics of graffiti, comic books, TV and the internet. But above all, this dynamic portrait of people stifled by their humdrum existence is a parable about the futile search for real life, feelings and God: for oxygen referred to in the title. The director says about his work: My country is showing off with its wealth; we show the smart president, St Petersburg and the Kremlin. I belong to the last generation of pioneers and members of Komsomol, all harmed by the USSR. When we were children, we were made to believe that communism would prevail. As young people we were shocked by the collapse of the empire. Now we have to cope with the cruelties of capitalism. All I can do is say it out loud.

Paulina Sieniuć