THE LAND OF OZ

On 31 December, Lena is looking for Torforezov Street in Yekaterinburg, where she is due to start a job as a shop assistant in a kiosk. She never arrives: first a car accident, then a series of men who, in their own way, recall the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, sweep her into ever new flats and New Year’s Eve parties across a city where everyone is drunk and no one helps. “The Land of Oz” (Strana Oz, Russia 2015) by Vasili Sigarev, from a screenplay by Sigarev and Andrei Ilenkov, is a New Year’s Eve comedy about the Russia of the 2000s.

Sigarev tells his story through language: what has filled the post-ideological space is mat, the Russian language of obscenity – the only one in which everyone here still understands each other. It premiered in competition at Kinotavr in Sochi on 10 June 2015, where it won the Grigori Gorin Prize for Best Screenplay and the Guild of Film Critics Prize. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2015.

Shown at the 2015 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2015 · Film Archive