Ayka

Ayka, an undocumented immigrant from Kyrgyzstan, wakes up in hospital to breastfeed her newborn child. Visiting the bathroom before going to see the baby, the young woman immediately makes her escape by forcing open a window and heads off into Moscow’s busy, snow-covered streets, leaving her child behind.

Winner of the Best Actress Award in Cannes this year, Sergey Dvortsevoy’s new film is a raw, intimate drama. Ayka forces us to acknowledge how life can cause an individual to lose an element of her humanity in the name of survival.