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For me, this short is a testament to the power of love, even in the most adverse conditions. I have always found myself in a mad search for the meaning of love in my own life, and it hasn’t been easy so far. By making this short, I wanted to follow my gut and find this meaning through imagery instead of words and through my love for visceral filmmaking. The main image that struck my mind early in the process was a couple performing their wedding dance while being pierced by bullets. Their love for each other in that moment would be strong that it protects them from crumbling to death. I know, this sounds overly romantic and cliché. But I can't help but love that idea. One of my favourite moments in the film is Masha talking in a rage about a burger and violently tossing it out of the car, while Vadik is simply staring at her cracked lips, her mad eyes – helplessly falling in love. Seeing beauty in someone's ugliest moments means true love for me, I think. The Eastern European setting (Kyiv, Ukraine) came as a natural idea to us for this story because it’s close to where I grew up and I wanted to explore this theme with local actors in my mother tongue – Russian.
Country: Germany
T-Port Partner: Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
Webpage: https://www.eugen-merher.com
Bio: Eugen Merher was born October 24th 1990 in Chisinau, Moldova and moved to Germany when he was five years old. At that time he discovered his passion for filmmaking with his parents' DV camera that he used for cheap action flicks with his friends. After almost 10 years of being a student, pleasing his parents with a bachelor’s degree in communications and making lots of spec commercials and short films at the infamous Filmakademie Ludwigsburg, he is finally ready to tackle the real world with his storytelling skills.
In post-soviet Ukraine, Vadik has to reassess his mother’s love advice when he meets Masha.
