"Oxygen"

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

Ivan Vyrypayev

Born in 1974 in Irkutsk, he graduated from the Acting Department of the Theatre Academy there. He also studied directing at the Szchukin Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow. He worked as an actor at a theatre in Magadan and at the Drama and Comedy Theatre in Kamchatka. In Irkutsk he established the Playing Space Theatre, closed down by the hostile authorities. Since 2001 he has worked at the Moscow experimental Theatre.DOC. Author of provocative plays for the theatre: Dreams, The City Where I Am, Valentine's Day, Oxygen, Existence No. 2, July, and Genesis No. 2. Outside his homeland, he's one of the best-known and best-selling contemporary Russian playwrights. Critics acclaimed him the voice of the young generation, the radical of the Moscow sub-culture, creator of rebellious socially involved art. His film debut Euphoria (Euforiya) of 2006 received the Little Golden Lion at the Venice festival and the Grand Prix at the Warsaw International Film Festival.

Filmography:

2006 Euforiya / Euphoria

2009 Kislorod / Oxygen