16'  Russian Russia

After a domestic quarrel, a mother and her son flee their home, leaving Kostroma for Moscow, where they find support from Ksyusha, a government official and an old friend.
Ksyusha helps enroll Kolya in a prestigious school, but the tuition is too expensive. She then offers Tanya a chance to participate in a patriotic poetry contest, promising to help her get a [...]

After a domestic quarrel, a mother and her son flee their home, leaving Kostroma for Moscow, where they find support from Ksyusha, a government official and an old friend.
Ksyusha helps enroll Kolya in a prestigious school, but the tuition is too expensive. She then offers Tanya a chance to participate in a patriotic poetry contest, promising to help her get a job. Tanya, desperate for a solution, immediately agrees. She writes patriotic poems and pressures her son, Kolya, to memorize and recite them on camera.
The process escalates: first, Kolya simply learns the poem, then he wears a military uniform, and finally, he holds a toy rifle. Everything is filmed on a phone.
Tanya invites Ksyusha to her apartment to showcase the footage. Ksyusha arrives with her awkward son, Petya. Seeing Kolya in a military uniform, she gifts him a new toy rifle with sound effects.
During the evening, Ksyusha and Tanya drink together and watch the recordings. Tanya asks Kolya to perform the poem with expression for Ksyusha.
Kolya, exhausted and emotionally drained, recites the poem and, in a surge of emotion, fires the toy rifle directly at his mother.
Silence. Hysteria. The end.

Category:  Fiction  Other  Experimental 

Genre:  Melodrama