MOVIE TRAILERS

Samal Yeslyamova in Trailer for Award-Winning Russian Drama 'Ayka'

by Alex Billington
January 10, 2019
Source: YouTube

"You've got two days, got it? If you don't pay it by then… it's gonna turn ugly…" The Match Factory has debuted an official trailer for a Russian drama titled Ayka, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year where it won the Best Actress award. Samal Yeslyamova stars in the lead role as Ayka, a woman who just gave birth to a child, but has no money or job or any way to properly raise her child. The small cast includes Aleksandr Zlatopolskiy. Newcomer Samal Yeslyamova won the coveted Best Actress award in Cannes, and the film has picked up numerous awards at other festivals throughout last year. It's still seeking US distribution, so this is just a promo trailer to drum up interest in the film. This has some striking visuals, but seems so depressing and brutal in portraying a young woman struggling to survive in the chill of Russia.

Here's the first promo trailer (+ festival poster) for Sergei Dvortsevoy's Ayka, direct from YouTube:

A poor woman without a job struggles to raise her child. Ayka (Samal Yeslyamova) just gave birth. She can't afford to raise a child. She has no job, debts to be paid, not even a room of her own. But there is no way to suppress her natural instincts. Ayka, originally titled Айка or The Little One, is directed by Russian filmmaker Sergei Dvortsevoy, director of the feature film Tulpan previously, as well as the documentaries Bread Day and Highway. The screenplay is written by Sergei Dvortsevoy and Gennadiy Ostrovskiy. This first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, where it won the Best Actress award. It also won the Cinema Extraordinaire award at the Bergen Film Festival, and the New Voices Award at the Oslo Films from the South Festival. No official US release date for Ayka is set yet. Stay tuned for updates. First impression?

Find more posts: Foreign Film, To Watch, Trailer

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