A small child is trapped in a tug-of-war battle between his frivolous, but loving mother and an emotionally abusive neurotic grandmother, who wants to "shelter" her beloved grandson at all cost.
Acting
Kryuchkova's Grandma: terrifying love incarnate.
Direction
Snezhkin traps you in cramped Soviet apartments.
Production
Period detail that reeks of boiled cabbage and decay.
Director
Sergey Snezhkin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Pavel Sanaev's autobiographical novel, this became a lightning rod in Russia for exposing the 'sacred' institution of grandmotherly devotion as potentially pathological.
Snezhkin originally wanted to cast Kryuchkova against type as warm; she insisted on playing Grandma's monstrousness straight, creating one of Russian cinema's most disturbing maternal figures.
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