A homeless drifter from Russia with a mysterious past arrives in a remote village in central Ukraine in writer-director Natalka Vorozhbyt’s (Bad Roads) metaphorical film Demons, which world-premieres at the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Friday, Aug. 13.
The drifter’s name is Slavik, and he seems to be the embodiment of Russia. In the village, he meets Nina, who represents post-Soviet Ukraine and the country’s independence.
What kind of adventure and drama can the protagonists and viewers expect? “Nina, a strong and independent woman much older than Slavik, takes the stranger into her home,” teases a synopsis. “At first, their strange companionship resembles an unlikely love story. But as their relationship unfolds, love turns into betrayal, and the village begins to reveal its hidden rules.” Those rules are summarized this way: “A place where witches may live next door, and the dead sometimes speak with the living.”
Vorozhbyt says that Demons and the relationship at its core unfolds on several levels. One is socio-political, where the relationship “becomes a metaphor for the relationship between Russia and Ukraine,” she explains.
The cast includes Ruslana Pysanka, Aleksey Mitin, Tatiana Stepanova, Ruslan Garmash and Mykola Ponomarenko. Demons features cinematography by Volodymyr Ivanov, with editing by Milenia Fiedler and Andriy Gulyanych. Celluloid Dreams is handling international sales.
THR can now exclusively premiere the trailer for Demons. You may want to mentally prepare for borscht, a flying vehicle, violence against a TV set blood and graves – and much more.
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