Ayka

I saw this film , in gala opening of Cairo film festival , held in Egypt Its a film about the suffering of a helpless young woman...how to survive in a country she knows nothing about ...illegaly working and living in it... On so many levels the story line is moving...but my comment was why all the excessive details..and long scnes repeating the same thing over and ober It was more of a documentary film.... My second comment was the overdose of blood ...it needed to tone down abit in this regard Some people who watched it felt that the director did not utilse the story well... Also the actress ( who won best actress in Cannes film festival 2018) had the same expresion almost all the film..not much of acting as much as the story its self that deserved a prize

We see a film that makes love to questions our souls seldom ask. The pain of attachment whispers to those of us finding love sacred, until we are all alone screaming in torment's silence.

A woman in Moscow attempting the forbidden, crossing the bridge of survival in the ice and snow of human apathy. As we are there with her, helplessness unflowering shock, the garden of our selfishness wants us to leave this immersion, are we drowning or escaping...Although we are the prisoner of our own denial, we would beg to lose the shackles of the woman in this film. Samal graces the river of my senses with a waterfall of paralysis. A rainbow of emotion awaits you. Become the fire of the sunrise. Or the darkness before the dawn. Fire does not burn. It illuminates. A film that blinds, that you may truly see and feel. Close to home...

Quite a realistic film showing the life of migrant workers from the former Central Asian Soviet republics in modern "humane" Russia. The aesthetic pleasure the film does not deliver, but view it still makes sense.

With 'Ayka', director Sergei Dvortsevoy has proven to be a contemporary master of the classic impetus of Russian art: depicting the depths of human suffering, despair, and the lengths at which one might go to simply remain alive. Leading actress Samal Yeslyamova goes beyond mere acting and gloriously succeeds in telling her story through minimal dialogue and maximal emotional performance. The story does stumble a bit throughout the first act, but it is sufficiently augmented by a gripping third act and an emotionally draining ending.

It's not easy to watch. The story, as it unveils , makes one clinching hands and seems to affect viewer physically. It's graphic but remains real, almost like a documentary. There's no music (as a film score), no chance for even a short break from heavy grip of what seems to be reality. And I believe it is reality, with fictional characters and acted out (in a most convincing way). It's a reality that you won't normally hear of, unless you know someone who's forced into it. That's why it's definitely worth watching, worth grinding your teeth in discomfort. Hopefully, it will at least make us think, feel and act differently when next time we encounter someone from that kind of reality.