Director: Johnny O’Reilly
Original Title: Moskva nekagda ne cpit
Language: Russian
Main Cast: Alexey Serebriakov; Lubov Aksenova, Evgenia Brik, Sergey Gazarov, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Yuri Stoyanov
This is terrific contemporary multi-story filmmaking from Irish director Johnny O’Reilly, which takes its starting point as twenty-four hours in the biggest, busiest and most energised city in Europe: Moscow. It is rare for directors to successfully get under the skin of an adopted city, but this is what O’Reilly manages; bizarre kidnappings, bullying bureaucracy, abandonment, broken homes and the pursuit of love are the themes at play in this remarkable film. It may be O’Reilly’s love letter to Moscow, but there’s real flint in here too.