For the 45 year old librarian Katya life has always been a struggle. She rents a room in a hostel and has to get by on her miserable librarian’s wage.

But life is full of surprises, and takes a turn for the better when Katya inherits an apartment from her father, and falls in love. But her newfound happiness doesn’t last long: Katya’s lover discovers a secret she’s been keeping from him, and leaves her. Her life was for a moment full of opportunities, hope, and what she thought to be true love, but it was all taken from her. She has nothing left to lose, and decides to have her vengeance.

The film is set in the mining region of Tula in 1996, in the aftermath of a nation wide strike that paralyzed Russia. It is a story of love, but also of a people that does its best to survive in a country stunned by financial crisis.

Aleksei Mizgiryov was born in 1974, and studied filmmaking atthe Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, where he took Vadim Abdrashitov’s classes. He made several short films during his studies, and they have been screened at various film festivals. His first feature film, KREMEN, was released in 2007.

FILMOGRAPHY:
2000 A BAD APARTMENT (SHORT)
2001 NINA (SHORT)
2004 NOTIFICATION (SHORT)
2007 KREMEN / HARD-HEARTED (TIFF 2009)
2008 KAMENNAYA BASHKA