Heart's Boomerang

Twenty-three-year-old Kostya works for the subway as a train driver’s assistant. One day he goes for a check-up, and the doctor diagnoses a serious heart condition and says that he has to radically change his lifestyle and his job. But Kostya decides not to tell anyone about his illness. Deep inside, however, he re-examines the life he has led until now, and realises that his mother is his only source of stability. He doesn’t really know how to relate to other people, nor does he know where his relationship with his girlfriend is going. The film is played out during the winter months, set in the suburbs of the Russian capital and within the city’s subway system. Cameraman Shandor Berkeshi (Koktebel, Free Floating) skillfully puts its fascinating allure to use in his black-and-white compositions. Hypnotic shots of the trains rumbling through the tunnels seem to reflect the mental state of a hero forced by necessity to take his life into his own hands. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)