In Between Dying

In theminimalist Birthday (19th NH) director Hilal Baydarov showed a day in his mother's life with reverence. In When the Persimmons Grew he repeatedly returned to his home village to face his mother's affection and longing. His latest movie, screened in-competition in Venice, is a full-throated fictional feature, where his protagonist "runs away from home," and whisks viewers on a journey where reality and fantasy blend - towards destiny. After a quarrel with his ill mother (played by Baydarov's mother), Davud, kicking like a young foal struggling for illusory freedom, runs blindly, sowing death on his way. Davud cannot love, he only believes in love, said the director, he is convinced that his real family exists somewhere else, a family that will help him discover the sense of his existence. This feeling appears on-screen as a series of poetic images, while in the real world we see a grotesque chase by local thugs on the protagonist's bloody trail, a protagonist who provokes the people on his way to radical act and the maturity he distills from the journey will be bittersweet.